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Editor’s Note: We know that many of you are looking for help writing travel experience essays for school or simply writing about a trip for your friends or family. To inspire you and help you write your next trip essay—whether it’s an essay about a trip with family or simply a way to remember your best trip ever (so far)—we enlisted the help of Professor Kathleen Boardman, whose decades of teaching have helped many college students learn the fine art of autobiography and life writing. Here’s advice on how to turn a simple “my best trip” essay into a story that will inspire others to explore the world.

Welcome home! Now that you’re back from your trip, you’d like to share it with others in a travel essay. You’re a good writer and a good editor of your work, but you’ve never tried travel writing before. As your potential reader, I have some advice and some requests for you as you write your travel experience essay.

Trip Essays: What to Avoid

Please don’t tell me everything about your trip. I don’t want to know your travel schedule or the names of all the castles or restaurants you visited. I don’t care about the plane trip that got you there (unless, of course, that trip is the story).

I have a friend who, when I return from a trip, never asks me, “How was your trip?” She knows that I would give her a long, rambling answer: “… and then … and then … and then.” So instead, she says, “Tell me about one thing that really stood out for you.” That’s what I’d like you to do in this travel essay you’re writing.

The Power of Compelling Scenes

One or two “snapshots” are enough—but make them great. Many good writers jump right into the middle of their account with a vivid written “snapshot” of an important scene. Then, having aroused their readers’ interest or curiosity, they fill in the story or background. I think this technique works great for travel writing; at least, I would rather enjoy a vivid snapshot than read through a day-to-day summary of somebody’s travel journal.

Write About a Trip Using Vivid Descriptions

Take your time. Tell a story. So what if you saw things that were “incredible,” did things that were “amazing,” observed actions that you thought “weird”? These words don’t mean anything to me unless you show me, in a story or a vivid description, the experience that made you want to use those adjectives.

I’d like to see the place, the people, or the journey through your eyes, not someone else’s. Please don’t rewrite someone else’s account of visiting the place. Please don’t try to imitate a travel guide or travelogue or someone’s blog or Facebook entry. You are not writing a real travel essay unless you are describing, as clearly and honestly as possible, yourself in the place you visited. What did you see, hear, taste, say? Don’t worry if your “take” on your experience doesn’t match what everyone else says about it. (I’ve already read what THEY have to say.)

The Importance of Self-Editing Your Trip Essay

Don’t give me your first draft to read. Instead, set it aside and then reread it. Reread it again. Where might I need more explanation? What parts of your account are likely to confuse me? (After all, I wasn’t there.) Where might you be wasting my time by repeating or rambling on about something you’ve already told me?

Make me feel, make me laugh, help me learn something. But don’t overdo it: Please don’t preach to me about broadening my horizons or understanding other cultures. Instead, let me in on your feelings, your change of heart and mind, even your fear and uncertainty, as you confronted something you’d never experienced before. If you can, surprise me with something I didn’t know or couldn’t have suspected.

You Can Do It: Turning Your Trip into a Great Travel Experience Essay

I hope you will take yourself seriously as a traveler and as a writer. Through what—and how—you write about just a small portion of your travel experience, show me that you are an interesting, thoughtful, observant person. I will come back to you, begging for more of your travel essays.

Take Notes in a Cute Journal

Keep track of all the crucial details- and even the ones you might forget, in a durable and refillable journal.

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Short Essay: My Adventurous Trip

A couple of short essay examples on an adventurous trip.

Table of Contents

My Adventurous Trip Essay Example 1

Traveling is one of the most exciting experiences one can have in life. It allows us to explore new places, meet different people, and create unforgettable memories. My recent adventurous trip was one such experience that I will cherish for a lifetime. The trip involved hiking through a dense forest, crossing a river, and reaching the summit of a mountain, where I enjoyed a breathtaking view. Despite facing challenges such as unpredictable weather and rough terrain, the trip was a memorable and rewarding experience. In this essay, I will share my experience of this adventurous trip, highlighting the challenges, the exhilarating moments, and the memories that I will cherish forever.

Our trip started with hiking through a dense forest. The forest was full of tall trees, colorful flowers, and chirping birds. The trail was steep and rocky, and we had to be careful while walking. The forest was so dense that we could hardly see the sun, and the air was full of freshness. We had to take breaks in between to catch our breath and hydrate ourselves. As we walked, we could hear the sound of a river, and after a few hours of hiking, we finally reached the river. The river was wide and had a strong current, and we had to cross it to continue our journey. We had to be careful while crossing the river, and we held hands to maintain our balance. The water was cold, and we could feel the current pushing us, but we made it to the other side, feeling proud of ourselves.

The highlight of our trip was reaching the summit of the mountain. The climb was steep and exhausting, but the view from the top was worth every effort. From the top of the mountain, we could see the entire valley, and it was a sight to behold. The sky was clear, and the sun was shining brightly, making the view even more beautiful. We took pictures and sat there for a while, enjoying the serene beauty of nature. We could hear the sound of birds and feel the cool breeze on our faces. It was a moment of pure bliss, and we felt grateful for being able to witness such a beautiful view.

Despite facing challenges such as unpredictable weather and rough terrain, the trip was a memorable and rewarding experience. We had to face unexpected rain and strong winds, which made the climb more challenging. We slipped a few times, but we managed to keep going, motivated by the thought of reaching the summit. The journey was long and tiring, but the memories we created were worth it. We bonded with our fellow travelers, shared laughter, and created memories that we will cherish forever. The trip taught us to be resilient, to push ourselves beyond our limits, and to appreciate the beauty of nature.

In conclusion, my adventurous trip was an unforgettable experience that allowed me to explore the beauty of nature, push my limits, and create memories that I will cherish forever. Hiking through a dense forest, crossing a river, and reaching the summit of a mountain were challenging but rewarding experiences. Despite facing unpredictable weather and rough terrain, we persevered and created memories that will stay with us for a lifetime. The trip taught us the importance of resilience, perseverance, and appreciation for the beauty of nature. It was an experience that I will always treasure and would love to relive again.

My Adventurous Trip Essay Example 2

My adventurous trip was an experience of a lifetime. It was a chance for me to step out of my comfort zone and explore the great outdoors. The trip was filled with activities such as hiking, camping, and kayaking. The beautiful scenery and wildlife sightings made the trip memorable. Overcoming challenges such as inclement weather and physical exertion added to the sense of accomplishment and adventure. In this essay, I will share my experiences of this unforgettable trip.

Hiking was one of the most exciting activities of the trip. We started our hike early in the morning, and the trail was challenging, but the view was worth it. The trail led us through dense forests, and we saw wildflowers, butterflies, and birds along the way. We stopped for a break at a small waterfall, and the sound of the water was soothing. As we continued our hike, we came across a steep incline, which was physically demanding, but we pushed on. At the peak, we were rewarded with an incredible view of the valley below. The sense of accomplishment we felt after completing the hike was indescribable.

Camping was another activity that added to the adventure of the trip. We set up our tents near a lake, and the view was breathtaking. We spent the night sitting around a campfire, roasting marshmallows, and sharing stories. The night sky was clear, and we saw countless stars, which was a beautiful sight. The next morning, we woke up early to go kayaking on the lake. The water was calm, and we saw fish jumping out of the water. We even saw a family of ducks swimming nearby. Kayaking was a peaceful and relaxing experience.

The trip was not without its challenges, however. We faced inclement weather during our kayaking, and it was physically demanding. The waves were strong, and the water was choppy. We had to navigate our kayaks through the waves carefully. At times, it was nerve-wracking, but we were able to push through and complete the activity. Overcoming these challenges added to the sense of adventure and accomplishment.

In conclusion, my adventurous trip was an experience that I will cherish forever. The activities such as hiking, camping, and kayaking, the beautiful scenery and wildlife sightings, and the challenges we faced made the trip unforgettable. It was an opportunity for me to step out of my comfort zone, explore the great outdoors, and create memories with friends. I hope to have more opportunities like this in the future.

My Adventurous Trip Essay Example 3

Going on an adventurous trip is an experience that many people crave. It is an opportunity to explore new destinations, push oneself to the limit, and create unforgettable memories. I recently had the chance to embark on one such journey, and it was an experience that I will never forget. My adventurous trip involved hiking through a dense forest to reach a remote waterfall. Along the way, I encountered challenging terrain and had to navigate through rough terrain. Despite the difficulties, the stunning views and sense of accomplishment made the trip a truly unforgettable adventure. In this essay, I will describe my trip in detail, highlighting the challenges and the rewards that came with it.

The first part of my adventurous trip involved hiking through a dense forest to reach a remote waterfall. The trail was not well-marked, and the terrain was challenging, consisting of steep inclines, muddy patches, and slippery rocks. The dense foliage made it difficult to see the path ahead, and we had to rely on our instincts and map reading skills to find our way through. The forest was alive with the sounds of birds and small animals, and the air was fresh and invigorating. As we got closer to our destination, the sound of rushing water became louder, and we knew we were getting close. Finally, after several hours of hiking, we arrived at the waterfall, and the sight before us was breathtaking. The waterfall was a powerful force of nature, cascading down from a height of over 100 feet. The water was crystal clear, and the surrounding rocks were covered in moss and ferns. It was a sight that made all the hiking and exertion worth it.

The second part of my adventurous trip involved navigating through rough terrain. The terrain was rocky and uneven, and we had to be careful not to slip or fall. At some points, the trail was so steep that we had to use ropes to climb up or down. The weather was also unpredictable, and we had to be prepared for sudden rain or wind. Despite the challenges, the sense of adventure and excitement kept us going. We were a group of friends, and we encouraged and supported each other along the way. We shared food and water, helped each other over difficult patches, and cheered each other on when we reached a milestone. The journey was not just about reaching the destination; it was also about the bonds we formed and the memories we created.

The final part of my adventurous trip was the sense of accomplishment that came with it. After several hours of hiking, navigating challenging terrain, and enduring unpredictable weather, we finally reached our destination. The feeling of standing in front of the waterfall, surrounded by the beauty of nature, was indescribable. It was a sense of accomplishment that came from pushing ourselves beyond our limits, from facing our fears and overcoming them. We took pictures, laughed, and savored the moment. It was a feeling that stayed with us long after the trip was over. The adventurous trip was not just a physical journey; it was also a journey of the mind and the spirit.

In conclusion, my adventurous trip was an experience that I will never forget. It involved hiking through a dense forest to reach a remote waterfall, navigating through rough terrain, and the sense of accomplishment that came with it. The trip was challenging, but it was also rewarding. It reminded me of the beauty of nature, the importance of perseverance, and the power of friendship. It was an experience that taught me to appreciate the simple things in life and to embrace the adventure that comes with it.

About Mr. Greg

Mr. Greg is an English teacher from Edinburgh, Scotland, currently based in Hong Kong. He has over 5 years teaching experience and recently completed his PGCE at the University of Essex Online. In 2013, he graduated from Edinburgh Napier University with a BEng(Hons) in Computing, with a focus on social media.

Mr. Greg’s English Cloud was created in 2020 during the pandemic, aiming to provide students and parents with resources to help facilitate their learning at home.

Whatsapp: +85259609792

[email protected]

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Home — Essay Samples — Geography & Travel — Journey — My First International Trip

My First International Trip

Categories: Adventure Journey

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Published: Aug 24, 2023

Words: 675 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Cultural immersion and perspective shift, embracing the unfamiliar, global citizenship and empathy, conclusion: a journey of transformation.

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Short Essay on My Adventurous Trip [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

Trips are a very essential part of our life. And if those trips have full of adventures, that bring more joy to us. In this lesson today, you will learn how to write short essays on an Adventurous trip .

Feature image of Short Essay on Adventurous Trip

Short Essay on My Adventurous Trip in 100 Words

Every trip is an adventure and gives us joy. Going out on vacation may not mean a trip. A trip with adventures is completely different. Sometimes the vacation trip also becomes adventurous. Lots of things happen that amaze us. Also in adventures, many dangers take place.

I remember such an adventure I had. It was a horseback ride in the mountains. I was very young when we visited Shimla. We went to the Rohtang Pass. It snowed heavily that day. There was snow all around. So we had to take horses. We climbed high up the mountain. It was so lovely to see nature. I loved it. I remember my horseback ride till now.

Short Essay on My Adventurous Trip in 200 Words

I still remember one thrilling adventurous trip I had. I got scared when it happened. But I also enjoyed it a lot. I was very young when I visited Shimla. I did not know that the adventure would happen. So I just went on a vacation. We had a wonderful train journey to Shimla. Reaching there, we decided to visit Rohtang Pass.

I was so excited! We took a car and went to the slopes. I looked out of the windows. The car was gradually rising to the top. The road was spiel, like a big snake. Soon we reached the hilltop. I jumped out. That day it snowed. So it was all white. I was so happy to see the scene. Then we took a horse to ride. That was the greatest adventure I ever had. It slowly walked up the mountain.

I looked at the sides and saw how deep it was. I felt scared. Suddenly I could not breathe anymore. I felt sick and almost fell off the horseback. My father immediately held me and we came down the slopes. I fainted due to no air. When I got well, the people served me hot soup. He said I was too little. So I easily caught a cold. I still remember how dangerous it was. But still, this adventure is a great memory.

Short Essay on My Adventurous Trip in 400 Words

Adventure and trip are closely connected to each other. It is really hard to avoid adventure from a trip. We often go on vacations. But these are only for fun. So a trip with adventure is different. Adventure makes us a different person. We become strong and brave in an adventure. It is very important to have it in our lives. An adventure is always exciting and amazing.

I was also lucky to have an adventure in my life. I was very little then and did not know about it. It suddenly happened. We went to Shimla that year. Shimla is always a great place to have fun. And it was the best vacation of my life. My father got us the tickets and we packed our bags. We took the train and went straight from Kolkata to Shimla. I enjoyed the view outside. It was wonderful. When we reached there, I jumped in joy. After two days of reaching Manali, All of us decided to visit it.

We planned to go to Rohtang Pass first. We started our journey. A car was booked. We took it and went to Rohtang. The road was like a snake. It was the first adventure I had there. It went slowly to the hilltop. I felt the cool breeze and looked out. It was so pretty. When we reached the top, I jumped out. It snowed that day. I started playing with it.

But the biggest adventure came after this. We had to take horses to go to the hilltop. I have seen horses in books. But had never ridden them. I clapped my hands in joy. My father and I got onto one. It slowly started moving. I touched the soft mane of the horse and it neighed. Soon we were at the top of the mountain. I looked down and got scared. It was dark. Long waterfalls were falling from the top. I stared at it. Suddenly I could not breathe. I tried hard but failed.

I soon fainted and was about to fall off horseback. But my father immediately caught me and we came down. The people nearby helped me and I opened my eyes. I had turned blue for no air. The people gave me hot soup to drink and feel warm. Gradually I felt better. After this, we left for our hotels. That day I was scared, but today I feel it as my best adventure. I will never forget this wonderful trip.

In this lesson above, I have tried to discuss the topic in a very simple and engaging language to make it easier to understand for all kinds of students. If you still have any doubts regarding this session, you can always post your queries down in the comment section below. To read more such sessions on various important topics, keep browsing our website.

Join us on Telegram to get the latest updates on our upcoming sessions. Thank you for being with us. All the best for your exam.

How To Write a Good Travel Essay

March 18, 2020

Travelling is one of the most exciting parts of everyone’s life. In the same way, this experience has the potential to be a fascinating topic for your writing assignments.

Writing a travel essay requires minimal creativity because trips are full of extraordinary events by their nature, as well as dramas and cultural findings. So, there’s no need to make things up or think through ideas while you are writing this kind of essay. To make life even easier you can even order essay .

However, as easy as it may sound, turning a travel experience into a piece of writing can be a bit challenging for students. Because if not careful, they will end up writing some dull clichés about a bunch of different places, and nothing more.

If you’ve never read any trips or you don’t have enough time to write a paper, you can quickly get your essay written by making use of available writing services. However, here we present some practical guidelines to help you write an exceptional essay:

Select Your Favorite City

Sometimes a trip is explicitly taken to collect information for an essay. If this is true about you, take your time to choose your destination carefully. Do some research before deciding on the city. Read about various regions and see which ones inspire you the most.

Your task here is to share useful information with people and get them involved in your journey. If you can’t enjoy your own trip, how can you let others have fun while reading the story? So it’s essential to choose a destination that you are interested in.

Choose a Few Attractions

Every city or town usually has several tourist attractions. If you attempt to include every single place you visited on that journey, your writing would be a boring list of city attractions that can be found anywhere, such as a tourist website.

Rather than mentioning multiple sights, focus on two or three places, and provide detailed information about them. Let readers know few, but know well.

Another point is that famous attractions are not proper choices for your writing because almost everyone knows the basic information about these places. Put your focus on unknown sites, remembering that people want to hear about something they have never heard.

Write a Compelling First Paragraph

Your first paragraph is usually the most important one. It’s where you convince the readers you had an incredible trip – one that has something new to teach your audience and is worth reading about.

Start with an unusual tradition you witnessed, an interesting dialogue you had, or a cultural misunderstanding you faced during your journey.

Use your sense of humor. Be as innovative as you can. No matter what you do, the final aim is to engage the readers and make them stick to your story.

Show Rather Than Tell

‘Showing’ is what makes a difference between a boring and outstanding travel essay. When you show something with your words, you actually describe what you experienced in full details. However, when you tell something, it’s like you’re just giving a brief report on what you did.

Readers won’t understand what an incredible park, a fabulous road, or a fantastic building means unless you show it to them. Showing makes the readers feel they’ve been there with you.

Therefore, don’t merely rely on telling where you went. Instead, add specific descriptions about that place, talk about your feelings, and paint an imaginary picture of that space in the minds of readers.

Images serve as a complement to your verbal description as they help readers imagine your story better.

One or two pictures is enough, but try to pick the most breathtaking ones that are more related to your narrative. Also, remember that vivid shots are always a better option than black and white ones because they are more eye-catching and can better intrigue the reader’s curiosity.

Keep It Simple

The primary purpose of writing a traveling essay is to entertain your readers. So, there’s no need to show off by using literary words or highly academic structure. Instead, use an active voice, try to be friendly, and bring readers closer to your story.

In this kind of essay, your writing intelligence depends on your ability to amuse people and your art of describing scenes, not using a lot of fluffy sentences.

Describe What You Achieved

If your traveling experience didn’t teach you anything or couldn’t make a positive change in your life, it would be a significant loss of time and money. Every great experience comes with great achievement. This can be as small as a shift in your beliefs, or as big as making wonderful friends. Whatever the accomplishment is, it’s worth telling your readers about it.

Give Readers a Good Ending

Every fantastic narrative begins with a good starting point, continues with a climax, and ends with a reasonable conclusion. Plan your paragraphs before writing. Think about the ways you want to start your story, go through the rising action, and then slow it down gradually to let readers know they are reaching the end of the story. If you end your writing in the middle of the turning point where the reader is reading the most thrilling part of the story, they might get puzzled and confused. It’s like putting an obstacle in front of a high-speed runner and making him stop all of a sudden.

Bottom Line

Travels are full of new experiences. Sometimes a short trip gives you a handful of stories to tell your future grandchildren. They have a lot to teach us and therefore, a lot to talk about. So why not use them as a subject for your writings? The next time you will be searching the net for online essay writing services with “interesting topics to write my essay,” think about your traveling experiences and bring everything you can remember on the paper. Then, google some “help write my essay tips” to learn the main guidelines for writing a travel essay.

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The Best Travel Experience Essay Ever

June 28, 2021 • Essay , Travel Tales • Views: 42632

Over the past seven years, I’ve been lucky enough to live and travel in many different countries. This has meant that I’ve regularly had experiences that other people dream of. When I think about my best travel experience ever, so many things jump out at me.

Learning to Scuba in the Great Barrier Reef. Bungy Jumping in New Zealand. Feeding elephants in Thailand. Teaching kids in Cambodia. Seeing the Christmas markets in Prague. And even cocktails on the beach in Mexico. I’ve been lucky enough to have so many great travel experiences, it’s hard to imagine what could be considered my my best travel experience essay.

But one experience stands above the rest. And that was my trip to Myanmar. After meeting my bestie in Bangkok for some bonding time, we decided to take a trip to Myanmar. And after five hours of standing in the hot sun while we got our visas, I was almost ready to throw in the towel. It would all be worth it though.

We knew that wifi would be a struggle, which is why we committed to a digital detox. For our entire trip, we had to be in the moment, with no social media, no work, and complete focus on what we were doing and where we were. It was exactly what we needed and a wonderful opportunity to detach from work and social media.

For someone who is continually working and always connected, this was a challenge. But I do think it forced us to be present in a way that we wouldn’t have been if we were continually checking our phones or our emails.

First, we spent a few days in Yangon. While the Shwedagon Pagoda was a stand-out, the thing I really remember about Yangon was the food. We ate at an Indian place which is where I tasted the worst thing I’ve ever eaten. Still not sure what it was, but it tasted exactly like bile.

Next, we were on our way to Bagan. Bagan was magical with surprisingly good food, and more pagodas than we could shake a stick at. We hired a guide and spent a day on our e-bikes, clambering up some of the biggest temples and taking way too many photos.

But the highlight of the trip was the hot air balloon ride over the pagodas at sunrise. We were lucky to get a clear day, and many of the other rides had been cancelled due to poor weather. Actually standing in the hot air balloon was a weird feeling- it didn’t feel like I was floating in the air at all, and it was just like standing on the ground.

The pagodas were at their best at sunrise. They glowed in the sun, which picked up the gold and made it sparkle. While the ride was over too soon, and we had a somewhat bumpy landing, this still goes down as my best travel experience ever.

What’s your best travel experience ever? Why don’t you challenge yourself to write your own best travel experience essay. Leave a comment below and let me know. Otherwise, you can contact cheap custom essay writing service to have your travel essay written from scratch.

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Essay on Best Vacation I Ever Had

Students are often asked to write an essay on Best Vacation I Ever Had in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Best Vacation I Ever Had

The unforgettable trip.

My best vacation was a trip to a beautiful beach town. The sun shone bright, and the waves danced on the sandy shore. My family and I stayed in a cozy beach house. We could see the sea from our windows. It was like a dream.

Fun Activities

We spent our days building sand castles and swimming in the cool sea. We also played beach volleyball and frisbee. In the evenings, we would sit by the beach, watching the sunset. The sky would change colors, from bright orange to deep purple. It was magical.

Exploring Local Culture

We also explored the local markets. We tasted different kinds of food and bought handmade crafts. The people were friendly and welcoming. It was interesting to learn about their way of life.

Memorable Moments

The most memorable moment was a boat ride. We saw dolphins jumping in the sea. It was an amazing sight. We also had a picnic on a small island. The whole experience was unforgettable.

This vacation was the best because it was filled with joy and wonder. It gave me beautiful memories that I will cherish forever.

250 Words Essay on Best Vacation I Ever Had

My best vacation.

My best vacation happened last summer when my family and I visited the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It was a trip full of fun, adventure, and learning.

The Journey

The journey started with a long car ride. We packed our bags with snacks, games, and our favorite music. The ride was fun as we sang along to our favorite songs and played games. We stopped at interesting places along the way, which made the journey even more exciting.

The Grand Canyon

When we reached the Grand Canyon, I was amazed by its beauty. The giant, colorful cliffs and the deep, wide valleys were breathtaking. We hiked along the trails, taking in the stunning views. I took many pictures to remember these beautiful sights.

There were many fun activities at the Grand Canyon. We went on a boat ride on the Colorado River, which was thrilling. We also visited the Skywalk, a glass bridge that lets you walk over the canyon. It was scary but exciting!

Learning Experience

The trip was also a great learning experience. I learned about the history and geology of the Grand Canyon. It was fascinating to learn how the canyon was formed over millions of years.

The End of the Vacation

When the vacation ended, I was sad but full of happy memories. This trip to the Grand Canyon was the best vacation I ever had. It was a perfect mix of fun, adventure, and learning. I will always cherish the memories of this wonderful vacation.

500 Words Essay on Best Vacation I Ever Had

Introduction.

The best vacation I ever had was a trip to the beautiful city of Paris in France. It was a family trip that I took with my parents and younger sister. This vacation was special because it was our first journey to a foreign country.

We traveled by plane. The flight was long, but the excitement of seeing a new place made it feel short. When we landed in Paris, we were amazed by the beautiful airport and the friendly people. We took a taxi to our hotel, which was in the heart of the city.

The City of Lights

Paris, often known as the ‘City of Lights’, was more beautiful than I had imagined. The city was full of life and color. We visited many famous places like the Eiffel Tower, Louvre Museum, and Notre-Dame Cathedral. Each place was unique and had a story to tell.

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower was a sight to behold. It was much bigger than I had imagined. We took an elevator to the top, and the view was breathtaking. We could see the whole city from there. It was a sight I will never forget.

The Louvre Museum

The Louvre Museum was another highlight of our trip. It was full of amazing artworks from all around the world. The most famous one was the Mona Lisa. Seeing such a famous painting in real life was a thrilling experience.

The food in Paris was delicious. We tried many French dishes like croissants, escargot, and crepes. The food was different from what we usually eat, but we enjoyed trying new things.

The Shopping

Paris is also known for its shopping. We visited many shops and bought souvenirs to remember our trip. My sister and I also bought some fashionable clothes, as Paris is known as the fashion capital of the world.

Our trip to Paris was the best vacation I ever had. It was a mix of fun, learning, and adventure. We made many memories that I will cherish forever. I hope to visit Paris again in the future. This vacation taught me the value of exploring new places and cultures. It was an experience that I will always remember.

This essay is exactly 500 words long. I hope you enjoyed reading about my best vacation. Remember, the world is full of amazing places. So, never miss a chance to travel and explore.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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Happy studying!

My best trip ever - SJ 2017/18

My best trip ever - sj 2014/15.

On July 21st we flew from Vienna to Munich, before that we drove to Vienna and it took us 2 hours. It was a very hot day. At the airport we had to wait to board. We had something to eat and drink. At 2 pm our gate was ready for boarding. On the plane I realised that we didn´t have a lot of space to move, but the flight was short, around an hour or so. When we arrived in Munich we also waited quite a long time before we could board the next plane.The flight to Portugal was a little longer. When we arrived in Portugal it was 9 pm at night. Our taxi driver brought us to our hotel. After the taxi had gone, we asked for our room at the reception.

The next day we went to Colombo, the biggest shopping center in Europe. On my birthday we went on a tourist bus and experienced the amazing sights of Portugal. We also went to the Oceanario - an aquarium. It was quite fascinating to see the wide range of sealife.

We had beautiful sunny days so we enjoyed our holiday in Portugal.

My best trip ever was to Egypt two years ago. I went with my family to Charmel Shake. We stayed in a 5 star hotel. The Hotel was very nice and the beds were very soft. There were seven pools and 8 restaurants in our hotel.

In the holidays we relaxed and we went to the city and on a boat.

The funny thing was that there was someone who wanted to sell us some lamas. The highlight was that on the boat we saw a dolphin that jumped out of the water.

The weather was hot and always sunny. I liked it a lot because it didn´t rain.

My best day trip ever was to Salzburg. I went there with my family and my aunts’ families on July 6th.

In the morning my dad drove us to the train station in Amstetten. We met my cousins Simon, Philipp, Sophie, Anna and Rosa with their parents. On the train we had a lot of fun.

When we were in Salzburg we had to walk for quarter of an hour to the “Haus der Natur”. In this museum were many different fish, a laboratory with water, a whale- and dinosaur exhibition.

We had lunch in an Italian restaurant and I had a tuna pizza. After that we walked to the “Festung Hohensalzburg“. There we ate ice-cream and drank lemonade. We visited the castle.

On the way to the train we walked through the “Getreidegasse” and we saw the “Mozart house”.

It was a great trip and I would like to do it again.

Verena, 3b:

Last summer my family and some of my relatives went to Loipersdorf for three days. We were already looking forward to our holidays. We stayed at a bed and breakfast place. It was not very nice, because it was old-fashioned. My family went there by car and it took us 3 hours.

Every day we went swimming in a spa. My family, my relatives and my aunt’s godchild had a lot of fun. Once we went down a slide on a tyre.There was a hole in thas slide in which we had to jump into to get down. This was the highlight of our holiday.

When it was lunchtime we often went to the restaurant in the spa. We had “Schnitzel” and other meals. The weather was hot, but sometimes it was rainy. It was a very nice holiday and I hope we will go there again one day.

Raphael, 3b:

On a beautiful day in the summer holidays, my family and I went to visit my cousin in Wieselburg. We went there by car. Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived there, and I thought that my cousin and I could not now go out to play football. So we played some games on the Wii. After a short time it stopped raining and we went out to play football. After we had played for about an hour we were so hot and wondered if we should go swimming instead.

We asked our parents and they allowed us to go swimming. So we packed our things together and headed for the swimming pool. When we arrived there only I had to buy a ticket because my cousin had a season ticket. After we had unpacked what we needed we ran to the diving-platform. At first we jumped from the one-meter-board, then we tried two meters and after that we jumped from the three-meter-board. At last we even went for the five-meter-board, that was scary!

At lunchtime we grabbed something to eat at the restaurant. The food was delicious. We had a "Wiener Schnitzel".

After we had finished eating we went to the soccer field next to the pool and played a match with some other children. After an hour we went back to the pool. My personal highlight was that I dared to jump down from the five-meter-board. My cousin was amazed because he had not yet made it.

At five o’ clock we went back again, my parents and I said goodbye and we went back home. It was a nice holiday day.

My best trip ever was to Lovran in July 2013. We went there by car and it took us 7 hours. I went there with my parents, my brothers David and Jonas, my aunt and my uncle and my cousins Melanie, Christoph and Gabriel.

We stayed there in a nice hotel called Excelsior. In the hotel we always had breakfast and dinner together. There was always an excellent buffet. They had a lot of fish. They had also pizza, pasta and a lot more.

We had a nice room overlooking the sea. Every day we went swimming and we had a lot of fun. One day we went to the island of Krk with a boat. The weather was fantastic, because it was sunny and the sky was blue. Then my family and I had lunch on the boat. Suddenly the captain’s wife threw the fishbones into the water and about one hundred seagulls flew behind the boat in no time. It was amazing.

Every night we went to in a nice pub on the beach. We always had a lot of fun. It was my best trip ever!

Antonia, 3c:

My best holiday ever was in Greece. I went there with my parents, my brother, my two sisters, my uncle, my aunt and two cousins. We had travelled by ship for 25 hours. We stayed in an appartment for two weeks.

We often ate in a restaurant. The weather was fantastic because it was hot and sunny.

We were often on different beaches. There we lay in the sun and swam in the sea. One day we went shopping to Igoumenitsa. We bought some souvenirs. One day we went on a sight-seeing tour to Lefkada. On another day we went to a flowstone cave. I think that was the best trip we had on this holiday.

On our way home we stopped in Venice and we visited this beautiful city. This was the best trip ever.

I went with my family to my grandma together with my cousins, aunts and uncles. We went by car to my grandma’s little farm. There we played games and the aunts, uncles and my parents went for a walk.

When the grown-ups came home again we drank coffee and ate some cake. Then it began to rain and we played on the Play Staystion 4 and watched the Austrian Bundesliga on TV. In the afternoon we all ate Frankfurter sausages. Then we kids played UNO and DKT, the grown-ups played other card games.

At 7 o’clock p.m. most of the people went home and then we went home, too. When we arrived at home I went to bed and then I fell asleep immediately.

Viktoria, 3c:

Last summer my family and our neighbours went to Rabac in Croatia for 5 days. We went by car, it took us 9 hours because we made a lot of breaks. Our hotel was called “Mimosa”, it was a 4-star hotel. It was very big and had an outdoor swimming pool.

On the first day we went swimming and diving in the sea and in the evening we went along the beach, it was very beautiful in the moonshine.

The next morning we met a nice girl from “Burgenland”. Her name was Kati. Later we went on a jet-ski ride - it was the highlight this summer. We rode on the water and it was very cool!

In the evening we ate mussels from the sea, they were not so good. But the food we had before was better.

The other days were rainy, that is why we did nothing special. I think this was the best holiday ever!

My Best Holiday Essay 200 Words

I want to take you on a fantastic journey through my best holiday ever. It was like a dream come true, filled with exciting adventures and unforgettable moments. So, fasten your seatbelts, and let’s dive into the story of my best holiday!

Table of Contents

My Best Holiday: A Journey of Adventure and Fun

My best holiday took place in a tropical paradise, an island called “Sunshine Cove.” It’s like a place you see in travel magazines, with palm trees, crystal-clear waters, and golden sandy beaches. The moment I arrived, I knew I was in for a magical time.

Fun in the Sun – Beach Days

One of the best parts of my holiday was spending endless days at the beach. It’s like having a never-ending playground of sand and waves. I built sandcastles, collected seashells, and even learned to snorkel to see colorful fish swimming beneath the waves.

Exploring the Island – Adventures Await

Sunshine Cove was not just about the beach; it had lush forests and hidden trails too. It’s like stepping into an adventure movie. My family and I went on hikes, discovered secret waterfalls, and explored caves that were like nature’s mysteries waiting to be unraveled.

The Delicious Discoveries – Food Adventures

Food was a big part of my holiday. It’s like a culinary journey around the world. I tried exotic fruits, fresh seafood, and mouthwatering desserts. I even had my first taste of coconut ice cream, which was like a scoop of heaven in a cone.

Meeting New Friends – Global Connections

One of the coolest things about my best holiday was making friends from different parts of the world. It’s like a global friendship festival. We played beach volleyball, shared stories, and even learned some words in their languages. It felt like a big international family.

Wildlife Encounters – Nature’s Surprises

Sunshine Cove was home to incredible wildlife. It’s like living in a National Geographic documentary. I saw dolphins leaping in the ocean, colorful birds in the trees, and even baby sea turtles hatching and making their way to the sea. Nature’s surprises were around every corner.

Starry Nights – Magical Moments

The nights at Sunshine Cove were like a dreamy wonderland. It’s like stargazing in the middle of nowhere. I saw shooting stars, made wishes, and had bonfires on the beach with marshmallows that were like little clouds of sweetness.

Learning and Growing – Life Lessons

My best holiday wasn’t just about fun; it was also about learning and growing. It’s like a classroom without walls. I learned about different cultures, the importance of protecting our environment, and how to appreciate the simple joys of life.

The Return Home – Bittersweet Goodbyes

As my holiday came to an end, it was like finishing a favorite book. Saying goodbye to Sunshine Cove and my new friends was bittersweet. But I knew that the memories and experiences would stay with me forever.

Gratitude and Future Adventures

My best holiday taught me the importance of gratitude. It’s like a treasure chest of memories and life lessons. I’m grateful for the adventures, the friends, and the time spent with my family. And I can’t wait for future holidays filled with new discoveries and exciting journeys.

Conclusion: A Holiday to Remember

My best holiday was like a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. It showed me the beauty of the world, the joy of making new friends, and the importance of cherishing every moment. I’ll carry the memories of Sunshine Cove in my heart forever, and I’m excited to see where my next holiday adventure will take me.

Author’s Note:

I hope you enjoyed hearing about my best holiday ever! It’s like a postcard from a place filled with sunshine and happiness. If you want to share your own holiday stories or chat about anything else, just let me know!

Hello! Welcome to my Blog StudyParagraphs.co. My name is Angelina. I am a college professor. I love reading writing for kids students. This blog is full with valuable knowledge for all class students. Thank you for reading my articles.

19 Inspiring Travel Experience Stories About Life-Changing Trips

Love inspiring travel experience stories ?

Then you’re in the right place!

Grab a snack and your favorite beverage and get ready to settle in, as you’re about to read some truly inspiring travel stories about life-changing trips.

In this roundup, some of my favorite bloggers share their best travel stories.

You’ll hear about travelers embarking on sacred pilgrimages, growing after a first solo female travel trip, deeply connecting with locals on the road, and getting out of their comfort zones in ways that completely alter the course of their life.

And if you’re looking for a unique travel experience, you’ll likely find it in the short stories about travel below.

Table of Contents

Free Travel Resources

But first…

Make sure to grab free access to my #BeyondTheGuidebook Travel Resource Library:

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I regularly share about solo female travel, New York City, lesser-known destinations, unique experiences, active adventures, and how to turn your passion for exploring the world into a profitable business through travel blogging.

Click here to head back to the travel blog .

There is so much included!

Plus, I’m constantly adding new resources, guides, and personality quizzes to help you travel beyond the guidebook!

On that note, let’s dive into the inspiring travel stories .

1. Travel Experience Stories In South America

My travel story takes place in South America, back when I used to travel solo for months at a time.

I was in my mid-20s, and even though I’d backpacked Europe, Southeast Asia, and China and had studied abroad in Australia, the mix of intense excitement and nerves I had leading up to my South America backpacking trip was different.

And despite family and friends warning me that South America wasn’t a place for a solo female traveler , it ended up being my best trip ever.

There are so many interesting short travel stories and unforgettable travel experiences woven into this trip, like:

Getting invited to have dinner with my Brazilian plane seatmate and her grandma
Having a group of complete strangers on Couchsurfing take me out for dinner and dancing on my birthday in Mendoza
Attending a small house party in Argentina and learning about the tradition of mate
Getting stuck on a broken-down bus and having an impromptu language exchange with an elderly woman in Peru
Having a love interest back home break up with me via text, and then experiencing the kindness of strangers as a woman in my hostel who I barely knew treated me to ice cream to cheer me up
Having a romance with a hostel mate in Ecuador and then traveling through the country together
Living in a giant treehouse with a group of strangers during a solo trip in Brazil and spending our days exploring hiking trails and swimming and our nights drinking and exchanging stories about traveling
Taking a 4×4 from Chile to Bolivia across the Siloli Desert to see otherwordly sites like rainbow lagoons and train graveyards in the middle of nowhere
Experiencing some of the world’s most incredible natural wonders, like Iguazu Falls, Torres del Paine, the Amazon River, Uyuni Salt Flats, and Perito Moreno Glacier

At times the trip was also challenging, from dealing with long bus rides and car sickness to flipping over my bicycle handlebars in Peru and getting my body (and ego) badly bruised.

But, I was okay.

In fact, I was more than okay, as the trip showed me how independent I could be and what I was truly capable of. It also showed me the beauty of immersing yourself in cultures different than your own and connecting with locals who want to share them with you.

Years later, when people ask what my best travel experience has been this is the trip that comes to mind.

-Jessie from Jessie on a Journey

2. Traveling With An Open Mind

Many people think of travel as an experience and rightly so. Sometimes, however, you cannot choose the places you travel to.

This happened to me in 2019.

My husband found himself posted in Brunei for work.

Three months pregnant meant that I had a choice:

Either stay with him in Brunei for three months before returning back to India or remain in India, alone.

I chose the former. Not because of my love for the country but because I wanted to be close to him.

Brunei had never held any appeal to me. Whatever research that I pulled off the Internet showed me nothing other than one beautiful mosque.

The flights in and out of the country were expensive so traveling frequently out was not an option either.

I was engulfed by a sense of being trapped in a remote place.

Needless to say, I reached Brunei in a pretty foul mood. I think one of the things that struck me the most even in the midst of that bad mood was the large swaths of greenery that surrounded us.

Mind you, we were not staying in the big city but as far away on the outskirts as you could imagine. I’m not a city girl by any stretch and the greenery eventually soothed my nerves.

It took a week, but I soon found myself interacting with people around me. Fellow expats and locals all went out of their way to make me feel comfortable.

The more comfortable I felt, the more we explored. We trekked (yes, while pregnant!), we joined the board game community, and we enjoyed the local cuisine.

Three months later when it was time to leave, I found myself reluctant to say goodbye to the warmth of the country I had called home for a short while.

I think that my time in Brunei taught me a valuable lesson:

Don’t judge a place by what others say or a lack of information.

Sure, you may not always like what you see, but there will always be something that you will like. You just need to look hard enough to find it!

-Penny from GlobeTrove

A slow travel experience across the Portuguese Camino de Santiago

3. From Half-Day Hiker To Walking Holiday Enthusiast

I’ve always enjoyed walking but never in a million years did I imagine I’d end up walking over 200 kilometers (~124 miles) in 10 days, become a fan of walking holidays, and end up developing self-guided hiking routes in Portugal with a local tour operator as part of my business.

The shift from being someone who was content with an easy three-hour walk to an experienced multi-day hiker began with a brief taste of the Portuguese Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrim trail through Portugal to Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain.

Back in 2013 I did a guided one-day hike along one of the most beautiful stretches of the Camino, north of Ponte de Lima. It’s also one of the most challenging sections so it was hard work, but the views from the top of Labruja Mountain made the climb worthwhile.

My guides were so enthusiastic about the thrill of arriving at Santiago de Compostela Cathedral after the challenges of day after day on the Camino that I began to think I might want to give it a go, despite not being religious.

Fast forward a few years and I set off from Barcelos with a friend of mine to follow the Portuguese Camino de Santiago.

Apart from suffering from chronic back pain, I thought I was quite fit but nothing had prepared me for how utterly exhausted I would feel at the end of each walking day.

This was truly a slow travel experience, as we were averaging about 20 kilometers (~12 miles) per day and by the time we reached our hotel, I would barely have enough energy to get cleaned up and find food before collapsing. I had envisioned plenty of sightseeing but that ended up being minimal.

Quickly, I realized the moral of this unique travel experience:

The Camino was all about making the most of the journey rather than the destination.

For me, that was quite a shift in thinking as I am usually all about getting to where I want to be as soon as possible so that I can start exploring. It was, perhaps, also my first step on the path towards mindfulness.

I will never forget the sense of achievement and progress at the end of each walking day, and the relief and pride I felt when we finally made it to Santiago de Compostela.

We met people who had walked the Camino several times and I can totally understand how it can become addictive.

-Julie from Julie Dawn Fox in Portugal

A story about traveling the Banda Islands

4. A Story About Traveling & Its Ripple Effect

Tucked away in far eastern Indonesia is a tiny archipelago of islands called the Banda Islands.

Apart from world-class snorkeling and some crumbling colonial buildings, the Banda Islands are mostly forgotten and would be described as a backwater by all accounts.

However, the Banda Islands are possibly the main reason that I am who I am today.

Well, the Bandas are the original Spice Islands.

Nutmeg used to grow on this tiny group of islands alone and nowhere else. The Dutch colonized Indonesia and promptly became the owners of islands where money grew on trees.

The only problem was that Indonesia was so far away that they needed a halfway stop to and from Indonesia.

That’s where my travel experience story comes in.

The same Dutch East India Company that traded in spice set up a halfway station at the foot of Table Mountain to break up their long journey. As a result, my Dutch ancestors arrived in the southernmost point in Africa , and generations later we are still there.

When I visited the Banda Islands, it dawned on me how something happening on the other side of the world can ripple out and affect people on the other side of the planet.

And I’m not the only one!

The spice trade was so important to the Dutch that they even traded a tiny island in the Banda archipelago for a much bigger island…Manhattan.

Yes. That Manhattan.

Before visiting the Banda Islands I never really knew about this part of my history.

Along with the spice that the ships carried back to Amsterdam, it also carried slaves. These slaves, more often than not, ended up in Cape Town.

Just like my European ancestors, they too became a part of Africa and added another shade to our beautiful Rainbow Nation.

It was in the Banda Islands that I realized how much of my culture, food, stories and even words in my mother tongue, Afrikaans, actually originated in Indonesia.

Because of these tiny islands, I am a true mix of Europe, Africa, and Asia. While I always thought I knew how all things in life are somehow connected, I didn’t really grasp it until my visit to Indonesia.

This could have been a resort travel experience story, as I went to Indonesia to swim and snorkel and relax on the world’s best beaches. And while I did get to do that, I also learned a lot about who I am as a person, my people, and my country…on another continent.

My visit to the Bandas has sparked a fascination with Indonesia, which I have visited seven times since. I’m already planning another trip to this spectacular country!

-De Wet from Museum of Wander

5. Awakening My Spirit In A Costa Rican Cloud Forest

In February 2017, I was just coming out of a decade of mysterious chronic illness that had shrunk my world.

And one of the things that finally helped me to resurface during the previous year was an online Qi Gong course I stumbled upon:

Flowing Zen .

To the casual observer, Qi Gong looks a lot like its better-known cousin, Tai Chi — the ancient art of moving meditation — but it’s actually energy medicine for healing.

In fact, it’s commonly used in Chinese hospitals.

My daily practice that year made such a difference for me that I dangled a reward for myself:

If I stuck with it all year, then I’d head to Sifu Anthony’s annual retreat in a cloud forest in Costa Rica the following February.

And I did! It was my first trip out of the country for more than a decade.

Just like that, I booked a solo trip — something I hadn’t done since I was an exchange student to Europe 30 years earlier — to San Jose where I met up with a dozen strangers and Sifu Anthony, our Qi Gong master.

We boarded a tiny bus and rode up, up, up around carsick-inducing curvy mountain roads into a magical cloud forest jungle where we finally arrived at The Blue Mountain (“La Montana Azul”) for a weeklong Qi Gong retreat.

There were no Internet or distractions here — just delicious organic vegetarian meals made with love and shared with the community under a gorgeous open-air palapa.

There were also colorful tropical birds singing in the jungle, as well as the largest arachnid I’ve ever seen in my gorgeous (but also roofless) room for a little extra adventure.

I’d felt a little energy movement during my year of online practice, but during that week on The Blue Mountain, my body began to really buzz with Qi — life force energy — as I Lifted the Sky, stood in Wuji Stance, and practiced Shooting Arrows.

I felt electrified and joyful.

And that was when everything changed for me.

At home, I had a successful career as a freelance writer, but I decided during my week in the cloud forest that I wanted more from life.

I wanted to explore the beauty, diversity, nature, and culture in every corner of the world.

And I wanted to share this intoxicating joyful feeling of life-giving freedom and adventure with anyone who wanted to come along for the ride.

Shortly after that, at age 53, I launched my travel blog.

Dreams really do come true. They are just waiting for you to claim them.

-Chris from Explore Now or Never

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6. From Rome With Love

This wasn’t the way I wanted to see Rome.

Sure, I was happy to spend Christmas in Rome and stand in awe of the city’s many iconic attractions. But, life wasn’t meant to turn out like this.

I was supposed to go to Rome with my mom back in 2012; however, life had different plans, because a week before our trip, I got a double kidney infection. A condition that required a week of hospitalization.

Although I was annoyed I had missed my trip, it wasn’t the end of the world since I was fine and everything seemed okay…until my mom developed a cough.

A cough that later became a heartbreaking diagnosis of stage four ovarian cancer.

My mom spent the final months of her life in chemo, desperately trying to fight a horrific disease so that she wouldn’t let her family down.

And she didn’t.

Instead, she showed us how to never give up on life, even if it was a losing battle.

So, when she eventually passed away, I booked a trip to Rome.

Sure, it wasn’t the trip I had hoped for. But, I knew that as her daughter, it was my job to live enough for the both of us.

And that’s exactly what I did.

Was I an anxious, sad, angry mess of a person?

Absolutely. I was still getting used to a world that my mother wasn’t a part of.

And honestly, you never get used to that world. You just deal with it because you don’t really have a choice.

But I also knew that I wanted my mom to live on through me and that I didn’t want to live a life where the haunting phrases “should of,” “could of,” and “would have” swirled through my head and ate away at my happiness.

So, I went. I packed a boatload of tissues, sobbed my heart out, and attended Christmas mass at the Vatican.

I also threw a coin in the Trevi Fountain, walked through the Colosseum, chowed down on gelato, and spent two weeks doing all the things my mom and I had wanted to do.

And that’s when it hit me. I had never gone to Rome alone because my mom had always been there with me. Maybe she wasn’t physically there, but I thought of her and felt her presence every minute of every day.

Her presence also reminded me that life isn’t about the things we buy or the money that we have.

It’s about making memories with the people we love; people that never really leave us since they are constantly influencing our lives in countless ways.

And after my trip to Rome, I finally knew that my mom would always be there because she had forever changed my life in the best possible way.

-Kelly from Girl with the Passport

7. Studying In Finland

One of my major life-turning points happened during my exchange studies in Finland.

Until then, I was studying at a university in Prague, had a part-time job at a renowned management-consulting firm, and thought I was on the right path in life.

At the University of Economics where I studied it was notoriously difficult to get on an Erasmus exchange trip abroad since the demand was huge. Everyone wanted to go!

Regardless, I decided to sign up early for my last semester, just to see what the process was like to be better prepared for applying again in a year.

I did make it through all the three rounds and surprisingly got a spot at a University in Turku, Finland! I was ecstatic. The success brought its own challenges, but once you set your eyes on the goal, nothing can stop you.

And I had the time of my life in Finland.

I met the most amazing people, traveled a ton, partied a lot, and bonded with friends from all over the world.

Given I was one of the few people there who really needed to pass all her courses and additionally write her thesis, I managed to run on an impossible sleep schedule of four hours per night. But I made it!

My studies in Finland opened up my horizons, too.

The summer after, I wrapped up my life in Prague and went on to study in Germany and China . The whole time I traveled as much as possible, often going on solo adventures. It was only a matter of time when I’d start my own travel blog.

My Finland adventure led me to a life of freedom made up of remote work, travel blogging , and plenty of traveling. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. And it gave me one of my favorite true adventure stories that I can now share with others.

-Veronika from Travel Geekery

8. How Cuba Changed My Life

One of my favorite inspiring stories about travel takes place in Cuba.

I visited Cuba in February 2013 and it changed my life — and I like to think it did so for the better.

Interestingly, I expected a completely different country and was compelled to write about it when I got back home.

But let me tell you more.

I read copious amounts of blogs and travel diaries to prepare myself for the trip to Cuba so I thought I’d go in with a fairly good idea of what to expect. Each and every post I read spoke of marvelous landscapes, pristine beaches, crumbling but charming cities, and welcoming locals.

All of it was true, in my experience — except for the locals.

I didn’t find them so welcoming. At least, not genuinely so. They only seemed to welcome me as far as they could get something in exchange: money, clothes, pens, soap, you name it.

Each and every day in Cuba was a challenge to avoid the scams, to avoid being ripped off, to fight off each and every attempt of people trying to take advantage of me. I usually managed, but it was exhausting and it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Once I got back home I felt the urge to write about my experience — not for other sites or papers as I’d often do. This time I was afraid I’d be censored.

So I opened my own blog. With zero tech knowledge, zero understanding of online content creation and SEO, I started writing and telling people what they should really expect during a trip to Cuba.

I’d put up the occasional post, but continued with my usual job.

At the end of the year, my contract as a researcher in international human rights law at the local university ended, and I decided to stop pursuing that career for a while.

I packed my bags and left for a long-term trip to Central and South America . I started writing on the blog more consistently and learning, and eventually took my blog full-time , turning it into a career.

As of today, I have never looked back and have no regrets.

The one thing I’ll do, as soon as I can, is travel to Cuba to say thank you — because it changed my life in a way nothing else has ever done.

-Claudia from Strictly Sardinia

9. A Short Travel Story About Finding Inner Peace In Patagonia

Life in London is hard.

Life in London as a gay single brown refugee is harder.

Juggling between work, my passion for traveling, and the prejudices that I dealt with on a daily basis eventually took their toll on me and I reached a breaking point.

The fact that I couldn’t return home to see my family and being away for them for almost nine years was enough to hammer in the final nail in the coffin.

I almost had a nervous breakdown and in that moment of desperation, which I knew would define the rest of my life, I took a month off and headed to Patagonia.

It was probably the best decision I’ve ever made in my life. The 36 hours it took me to get to El Chalten from London were tiring but Patagonia blew me away.

On my first day there I did a 28-kilometer (17-mile) hike which included a steep mountain climb. It was incredible how moving through the forest helped me clear my mind. And as I stood in front of Laguna de Los Tres, the rain and clouds gave way to sunshine and a rainbow.

I felt at peace.

The countless hikes, great food, and the warmth of locals in Chile and Argentina helped me get back in my skin and find the peace I was missing in my heart.

Nature is indeed the best medicine when it comes to stress relief and I won’t be coy about hugging trees to speed up the process (it did).

Patagonia was life-changing for me.

The beauty of nature struck me at each point and every time I thought it wasn’t possible to beat the view, the next one did just that.

I came back a changed, resilient, and most importantly, a happy person.

-Ucman from BrownBoyTravels

10. Looking Inwards & Making Connections With Strangers

It was decades before I traveled solo for the first time in my life.

This trip — a six-day escape to Colorado — was the first trip that was not for business or family reasons but just to travel and discover.

As I prepared for it, I had a strange feeling of excitement and nerves at the same time. I had all sorts of thoughts and doubts:

Would it be fun?

Would I be bored?

Would I stay in bed all day or would I bounce with excitement to do the next thing?

I wasn’t sure. Little did I know that it was going to be a memorable journey of self-discovery.

As a good wife and mom, for me travel is always about the family; always thinking of who would enjoy what. It’s about family time and bonding. It’s about creating memories and travel stories together. It’s all so wonderful.

But on a solo trip who would I connect with? What would I say?

Well, I found that I got to do anything I wanted!

Usually when I travel with my family, if I feel like going on a drive that’s not on the itinerary or getting a snack no one else is interested in, we simply don’t do that.

So it was weird to just go do it. Really, that’s a thing?

As for making connections, it was so easy to meet locals while traveling and also to connect with other travelers. Honestly, I had conversations everywhere — on planes, while hiking, in restaurants, in the hotel lobby.

It was quite an eye-opening experience to meet a mom of 18 kids and hundreds of foster kids, a cookie baker, a professional photographer, a family of Fourteener hikers, and an internationally ranked marathon runner.

The inspiring stories I discovered were amazing and nothing like my wonderful safe life at home.

In terms of travel safety , I got to go rock climbing, solo hiking, driving up a Fourteener, eating alone.

And it was all fine. Actually, it felt surprisingly normal.

It was was just me, my SUV, and my backpack for a week. Most of all, it was a breath of fresh air that I didn’t know existed.

It’s wonderful to be back home and know that possibilities are endless and there is so much more out there to explore and be wowed by!

-Jyoti from Story At Every Corner

life-changing travel experience stories in Colombia

11. A Solo Hike To Find Connection

I have traveled solo many times, but I admit I was a bit uneasy booking my trip to Colombia . In part, due to the country’s dark past. But also because I desperately wanted to do the Cocora Valley hike, and if I’m honest, I was terrified.

This hike is located in the Coffee Triangle, an area recognized for its beauty as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It features both rainforest and a stunning green valley speckled with cartoonishly-tall wax palms rising 200 feet or more.

It’s incredibly beautiful.

It’s also a long hike and quite challenging — it generally takes between six and eight hours and there is a steep area with over 3,000 feet of elevation within a quarter of a mile.

I wasn’t in hiking shape, so I was a little concerned. But, worst of all for me were the seven dodgy-looking suspension bridges.

I’m terrified of heights.

And, I’d be going alone.

I decided to go anyway and I met an incredible woman on the bus to Salento, the town near Cocora. She was also traveling solo and we agreed to hike together.

The town is a backpacker enclave and we met up with a small group of people all traveling solo. As the days passed, our group got larger and it was such a magical experience.

As much as I love city travel, this small town won my heart.

My new friend and I set off on the hike and met two other women who were nervous to do the hike. We all went together.

When we got to the first suspension bridge, I paused. I was embarrassed to admit my fear, but the bridge swayed widely and there was nowhere to hold onto.

When they realized how out of my comfort zone I was and how scared I felt, everything changed. Instead of me dealing with it alone, they were all there to encourage me.

One crossed the bridge to encourage me from the other side and they stayed off of it to limit the sway. Crazy enough, I not only crossed the seven suspension bridges, but I also crossed one an extra time when we went the wrong way on the trail.

I did it!

I was prepared to be blown away by Cocora Valley’s beauty, but what I wasn’t expecting was what a life-changing travel experience my time there would be.

-Sam from My Flying Leap

short stories on travel and sustainability

12. How A Pet Sitting Travel Experience Led To A Passionate Career

We wanted to go to the Caribbean but didn’t know much about the islands or how we were going to afford it.

By chance, a friend of ours in Australia mentioned “pet sitting” and that it is something you can do all over the world.

We quickly created an account on a pet sitting website and began searching for options. There were only a couple of sits available in that part of the world, but we tried our luck, sent a request, and to our surprise landed a three-month gig in a beautiful house in the US Virgin Islands — with an infinity pool overlooking the British Virgin Islands.

A month into our sit, we had explored the destination pretty well and so had a lot of time on our hands. We managed to secure another sit in Grenada, so our year was going to be taken up with Caribbean pet sits.

Inspired by a Canadian couple that had previously stayed at our Grenada housesit, we decided to start our own travel blog. We began by writing about The Virgin Islands, highlighting the beautiful beaches and funky bars.

But for every photo of a beautiful beach there were 10 photos of trash.

It was hard to ignore the plastic pollution issue, especially on such pristine and remote beaches. So, we began to share photos of the trash we saw and how much we could pick up on our daily dog walks.

The more we looked into plastic pollution, the more we realized the severity of the global plastic pandemic. From that point, we used our platform to create awareness and highlight ways to say no to plastic and travel plastic-free .

We changed our daily routines, our way of living, and even our diets to accommodate more organic foods and little to no plastic packaging.

It’s been over three years now and we continue to do what we can. This journey has led us to some amazing places, working with great conscious brands and even organizing a country-wide beach clean-up campaign in Grenada.

Our aim now is to keep on going.

We love connecting with like-minded people and love the shift over the last few years that brands have made towards creating more sustainable products and services.

It’s been an amazing few years that was sparked by a conversation about pet sitting. Who would have guessed?

-Aaron & Vivien from The Dharma Trails

13. Learning To Slow Down The Hard Way

On Christmas of 2017, I was born again.

We like to spend our Christmas holidays somewhere warm abroad, and that year we chose Uganda.

Nature, wildlife, and sunny days were a blessing when it was so cold and dark in Europe. Life was beautiful, and we had a rental car and a busy schedule ahead to explore the country.

This is where this short travel story turns into one of my more scary travel experiences :

At Murchinson Falls National Park, we had a car accident.

I lost control of the car, and it rolled over, destroying windows, chassis, and engine.

But we were alive! My right arm was severely injured, but we managed to walk to our lodge, not far inside the park.

In the lodge, I was happy to learn that there was a pretty decent American hospital in Masindi that was just a one-hour drive from the lodge. Moreover, one of the lodge’s guests was a nurse who cleaned the wound while we were waiting for the taxi from/to Masindi.

The hospital took care of us, and after a couple of injections and stitches, I was ready to head to our new hotel in Masindi; however, my wound required daily dressing and more injections, so we were asked to stay in town for a few days.

Masindi is the kind of place where you may want to stop to buy some food or water, but that’s it.

The town’s highlights were the market and our daily visit to the hospital, so we ended up looking for the small things, chatting with the medical staff, the hotel staff, the people in the market, and learning more about their customs.

We learned to slow down the hard way.

When we were allowed to leave, we took a road trip south through the country to see something else. We did not care about our travel bucket list anymore — we were alive, and we wanted to enjoy Uganda’s unique nature and its people.

In the end, our Uganda trip was not about the places that we saw, but the people that we met. It was travel for experience vs sightseeing.

I hope to revisit Uganda one day, with a stop at Masindi for some food, water, and maybe something else.

-Elisa from World in Paris

14. A Cycling Trip To Remember

During the summer of 2019, I cycled solo from London to Istanbul. This huge bicycle tour took me 89 days and through 11 countries.

As you might expect, it was a challenging yet incredible journey, which saw me pedal along some of Europe’s greatest rivers, pass through some of its best cities, and witness some of its most beautiful scenery.

It’s becoming more and more important for us to think about the impact that travel can have on our environment. This was the inspiration for my bicycle tour; I wanted to find more responsible ways to explore the world and avoid flights where possible.

I discovered that bicycle touring is one of the most eco-friendly ways to travel, as using nothing but a bicycle and your own pedal power you can carry everything you need while covering surprising distances each day.

The simplicity of life and the sheer amount of time I spent cycling alone gave me a lot of time to just think . This really helped me to come to terms with some personal problems rooted in my past and, as a result, I arrived solo in Istanbul with newly found confidence, independence, and liberation.

Cycling across the entire European continent may seem like an impossibly daunting task, but I assure you, it will make you feel like a new person, just like it did for me.

-Lauren from The Planet Edit

15. How The Caribbean Shaped Me Into A Fully Sustainable Traveler

One of my first international trips as an adult was traveling around the Caribbean .

I checked into my hotel in Jamaica and asked for a recommendation for a local place to eat. The receptionist told me that under no circumstances should I should go into the town because it was really dangerous, but that — to my luck — the hotel’s restaurant offered wonderful Caribbean food.

I pondered my options:

Did I really want to spend all my time on the beach without getting to know a single local?

I was a very inexperienced traveler and very young, but there was only one answer to my question:

Absolutely not. I was not going to be visiting a new place and staying hostage in a hotel chain. So out I went.

The poverty hit me in the face. After only seeing fancy resorts, the reality was hard to swallow.

A few locals approached me and were super curious as to what I was doing there alone, since most tourists didn’t go there.

I told them I was interested in meeting them and experiencing their culture. And just like that, I was embraced.

We met more people, had some food, and then we danced the night away. They had so little, yet they wanted to share it with me. They wanted to make me feel welcome.

And they undeniably did.

The next morning all I could think about was how all the money most tourists spend goes to big corporations. The locals have to be thankful if they get a job that pays minimum wage, while foreign businesses earn millions.

I have always been environmentally conscious, but this trip made it clear that sustainability goes well beyond nature and wildlife.

It’s also about communities.

From then on I always look for locally owned accommodation, eateries, guides, and souvenirs.

Sustainability, with everything it entails, became a motto for me and changed the very essence of the way I travel.

-Coni from Experiencing the Globe

16. Lessons From My Students In Peru

One of the most life-changing trips I’ve ever been on was a volunteering experience in the stunning city of Cuzco in Peru.

I spent a month there teaching English and Italian to a group of local adults. And even though my time there was short, the travel experience was so humbling that it changed my outlook on life.

My lessons took the form of active conversations, which essentially turned into a massive multilingual cultural exchange between me and my students. Hearing my students talk about their lives — and realizing just how different they were from mine — made me look at my own life with a fresh new perspective.

One person spoke about the three years he spent living in a jungle with his dad, where they fed off of animals they hunted in order to survive.

Another student told me about her ultimate dream of mastering English so that she could become a tour guide and have a more stable future.

For me, these stories were a reminder of just how small I am in this world and how much we can get consumed by the small bubbles we live in.

Most of all, my students showed a passion and appreciation for life that I’d never witnessed before.

This is true for the locals I met in Cuzco in general. The quality of life in Cuzco is very modest; hot water is scarce and you learn to live with little.

But the locals there do way more than just that — they spontaneously parade the streets with trumpets and drums just because they’re feeling happy, and their energy for the simple things in life is incredibly contagious.

It was impossible to not feel inspired in Cuzco because my students always had the biggest smiles on their faces, and the locals showed me again and again that simply being alive is a blessing.

I went to Peru to teach, but ended up learning more from my students and the locals there than they did from me.

Ever since I got back from that trip, I made it a goal to slow down and not take the simple things in life for granted.

Every time I get upset about something, I think about the Peruvians in Cuzco parading their streets in song and pure joy, and I tell myself to stop complaining.

-Jiayi from The Diary of a Nomad

inspiring traveling stories about overcoming obstacles

17. Braving Travel With Chronic Pain

Santiago de Compostela is a beautiful city with a prominent cathedral positioned centrally within the city.

While the historical cathedral attracts numerous visitors, even more well-known is the route to Santiago de Compostela, Camino de Santiago –- the world-famous pilgrimage route that has a plethora of trailheads and ends in Santiago.

Home to locals, students, English teachers, and those on a spiritual pilgrimage, personal conquest, or a great outdoor hiking excursion, Santiago is a magical city.

My introduction to Santiago de Compostela doesn’t begin on the pilgrimage route, yet ends with a spiritual awakening analogous with those other unique pilgrimage stories.

It was my first solo trip abroad teaching English in Spain, a country that’s always been on my travel bucket list. A small town outside of Santiago was selected as the school I’d be teaching at for the year.

Unknowingly, this teach abroad program chose the perfect city for me to live in.

A year prior, I suffered a traumatic brain injury that left me unable to function normally and complete average tasks. Migraines, headaches, and dizziness became my body’s normal temperament, a hidden disability invisible to the naked eye.

Braving travel with chronic pain was the first lesson I learned during the trip.

The vast green outdoors and fresh dew from the morning rain enlivened me daily and reminded me about the importance of slowing down so I could enjoy traveling with my hidden disability.

I also learned to stop often for daily tea breaks and to embrace the long lunch hour, siestas , with good food, company, and a nap to rest.

Meeting locals , indulging in local food, and learning Spanish allowed me to connect deeply with the beautiful culture of Santiago. After all, my dream was to travel to Spain, and I more than accomplished that dream.

Difficult or not, I learned to own my dream and I was more than surprised with the results.

Who knew that a year after my injury I’d be traveling the world with chronic pain, and for that, I’m eternally grateful.

-Ciara from Wellness Travel Diaries

18. A Blessing In Disguise

2020 has been a wild year for all of us and foreign students in China are no exception. As soon as the malevolent virus began to make its rounds in China, our university sent us home for “two weeks.”

However, within a short time, countries began to shut their borders and these “two weeks” turned into months, a full year even.

Crushed by the burden of online lectures and virtual labs, my boyfriend and I packed our bags and caught one of the first flights to his home country of Pakistan.

I had always been an over-ambitious traveler. I believed numbers were everything — the number of countries I visited, the number of hours I spent on a plane, the number of international trips I took in a year. These numbers were what defined me.

My feet were constantly itching and I never liked to spend more than a few days in a place before heading to the next country. Revisiting a place felt superfluous to me.

That’s why I was hoping to spend a month or two in Pakistan and then continue to check new countries off the list — after all, my online classes finally granted me the freedom to “work on my numbers.”

But as is usually the case in 2020, things turned out quite different from what I had expected. Borders remained closed and worldwide infections stayed rampant. At this point, I have already spent nearly half a year in Pakistan.

During this peculiar time, however, an amazing thing happened:

My mindset about travel started to change and I began to look at my long stay in Pakistan as perhaps my most valuable travel experience ever.

I may not have visited dozens of countries like in previous years but my experiences were deeper than ever before.

From trekking to one of the world’s tallest mountains to sharing tea with heavily armed officers at nearly 5,000 meters altitude to exploring hidden beaches in the most secluded regions to spontaneously being invited to village homes, my adventures in Pakistan couldn’t have been more incredible. They opened my eyes to the sheer diversity of many countries and completely transformed my idea about traveling.

It took me nearly a full year of heavy restrictions on international travel and a few months in one of the world’s most fascinating countries to give up on my superficial ideals and become a more mature traveler.

This time will always have a special place in my heart.

-Arabela from The Spicy Travel Girl

short travel stories about life-changing trips

19. What The River Taught Me

My travel story takes place in the summer of 2017 — the final summer before I graduated university — as it continues to play a significant role in the person I’ve become.

When I say that, people ask me if it was the portion of the summer I spent solo backpacking in Europe . And to their surprise, it wasn’t. It was actually the latter portion of the summer where I stayed closer to home.

For July and August I worked as a canoe guide leading whitewater canoe trips on remote rivers in Canada. It was here that I got to canoe the powerful and iconic Missinaibi River, a river that continues to influence me all these years later.

The Missinaibi River flows from the powerful Lake Superior to the even more powerful salty waters of James Bay. Here, I led a group of eight teenagers through dozens of whitewater rapids over 500 kilometers (~311 miles).

With no cell service for 25 days, we were forced to disconnect from anything other than the river.

During this trip I learned two important lessons:

First, I learned to be confident in my own abilities as a leader and problem solver.

There were a few rapids where my campers’ boats flipped and I had to rescue the campers and the canoes. One rescue saw two boats flip on a mile-long rapid. It took six hours to make it down the rapid, and during this time I managed stuck canoes and crying campers.

And while this was one of the most difficult rescues I’ve done, I was amazed at how calm I was throughout it. I gave clear directions, prioritized effectively, and kept my campers safe throughout the entire experience. Following the rescue, I had a newfound sense of confidence in my abilities.

The second lesson I learned on the Missinaibi was the power of disconnecting from society and connecting with the people around you.

A wild river commands all of your attention. Each day, you and your group must take down camp, load canoes, paddle up to eight hours while navigating both rapids and portages, get to a new campsite, set up camp, cook dinner, and go to bed.

And without the distraction of technology, your attention has nowhere else to be. You focus on the river and your teammates.

As someone who had wrestled with anxiety and depression prior to this summer, I felt at total ease on the trip. Now I seek societal disconnection and human connection as much as I can.

Sometimes the most profound, life-altering trips are the least expected trips closer to home.

-Mikaela of Voyageur Tripper

Do you have any inspiring travel experience stories about life-changing trips to share?

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These stories are so much fun to read! Thanks so much for putting a post like this together. It’s great to be able to check out other people’s blogs and read about other people’s experiences!

Always great to read about travel experiences of others. Some great stories to read over coffee. I’ve Pinned your post for future reference and to share with others. Will check out each story author’s blog as well. Great Job! 🙂

Amazing story for new traveler like me thanks for your contribution

21 Life-changing Trips Everyone Should Experience at Least Once

From African safaris to must-visit cities, these once-in-a-lifetime trips will make you want to plan your next great adventure.

Elizabeth Rhodes is a special projects editor at Travel + Leisure , covering everything from luxury hotels to theme parks to must-pack travel products. Originally from South Carolina, Elizabeth moved to New York City from London, where she started her career as a travel blogger and writer.

What's next on your travel list? With so many places worth traveling to, it can be hard to narrow down your top spots to visit.

Sometimes, it's the famous attractions, delicious food, and stunning hotels that draw us to a certain destination, and other times, it's the bragging rights that come with checking off every continent, country, or state. Whatever your motivation, we've rounded up 21 incredible trips, complete with once-in-a-lifetime experiences and iconic sights you won't find anywhere else in the world.

So, what makes a trip truly life-changing? That answer varies from traveler to traveler, but one thing is for sure: From African safaris to classic road trips, this list will make you want to plan your next great adventure.

Deciding between the historic cities of Rome, Venice, Naples, and Florence for the top destination to visit feels impossible, so the entire country of Italy deserves a spot on your list. Start in the Eternal City and head north through the rolling hills of Tuscany to visit Florence, followed by Milan or Venice, or go south to the beaches of the beautiful Amalfi Coast and Sicily.

New York, New York

Visiting the Statue of Liberty , standing at the top of the Empire State Building, walking across the Brooklyn Bridge: These are just a few of the things you can only do in New York City. Whether you dream of visiting all the places you've seen on screen, catching a Broadway show, or eating your way through the city's diverse neighborhoods, there's no doubt that NYC deserves a spot on your list.

Tokyo, Japan

Old and new come together in Japan's bustling capital city. Historic temples and shrines, busy shopping districts, delicious food, and some of the world's best theme parks and attractions — whatever your interests, there's something for you in Tokyo.

Paris, France

From watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle and viewing famous works of art at world-renowned museums to eating delicious French pastries, there are innumerable reasons that Paris deserves a spot on your list. Of course, other dreamy French destinations like Mont-Saint-Michel, Chamonix, and the Riviera are well worth a visit, too.

Busy medinas, intricate architecture, and a unique combination of cultural influences make Morocco unlike anywhere else on the planet. Whether you're traveling to bustling Marrakesh, pretty coastal cities, or remote desert towns (or hopefully, all three), a trip to Morocco is bound to be one to remember.

Monica Farber/Travel + Leisure

From the whitewashed homes of Santorini to the Ios party scene to the relaxing atmosphere of Milos, there's a perfect Greek Island for every type of traveler. Island hopping gives you the chance to experience more of what the country has to offer, but plan to spend a couple of days in Athens at the beginning and/or end of your trip.

T+L Backpack Quiz

Rory Fuller/Travel + Leisure

Machu Picchu

Seeing the historic ruins of the Incan Empire set among the breathtaking Andes at Machu Picchu is an undeniably life-changing experience. The stunning citadel ruins of Machu Picchu are worth the journey — and for some travelers, that trip, often taken by train or on foot as a multi-day trek , is a big part of the experience. Editor’s note: Machu Picchu is currently closed due to civil unrest in Peru. Visit the official website for the latest news and reopening details.

African Safari

Seeing majestic animals like lions, elephants, and rhinos in the wild is a dream best accomplished with an African safari . South Africa, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Kenya are among the most popular safari destinations — and in each of those countries, you'll find incredible lodges and tour operators who can help you spot these creatures in their natural habitat.

Whether you dream of cruising down the famed Nile River, seeing the Pyramids of Giza, or visiting the ancient Valley of the Kings, Egypt's historic wonders make the destination completely unique (and worthy of a spot on your travel list).

Unlike many of the action-packed trips on this list, the Maldives is synonymous with relaxation, luxury, and romance. A stay in an overwater bungalow set atop turquoise blue waters is the ultimate getaway that's worth the long-haul flight and oftentimes pricey accommodations.

Antarctica Cruise

Hoping to visit all seven continents? Cross Antarctica off your list with a cruise. Several major cruise lines have journeys to Antarctica, offering incredible views of the ice and wildlife from the comfort and safety of a ship. Travelers typically fly in and out of Buenos Aires en route to Ushuaia (where most cruises depart from); we recommend spending a few days in the fascinating Argentine city before your expedition.

Irjaliina Paavonpera/Travel + Leisure

Dubbed one of the natural wonders of the world, the Great Barrier Reef is a can't-miss for many wildlife lovers. Of course, Australia's gorgeous coastline, the iconic Sydney Opera House, and fuzzy creatures like kangaroos and koalas are also reasons to head to the destination. Fly into Sydney and spend a few days there before heading out to explore more of this expansive country teeming with natural beauty.

Galapagos Islands

Incredible and diverse plant and animal species make the Galapagos Islands another must-visit for nature-loving travelers. This stunning archipelago off the coast of Ecuador is best explored by cruise, so you can take in as many breathtaking landscapes and animals as possible during your trip.

Like the other countries on this list, India has countless destinations worth exploring, but one of the most famous attractions that travelers dream of seeing for themselves is the Taj Mahal. This 17th-century white marble mausoleum has drawn visitors to Agra for years. Luxury travelers might consider a train trip aboard the Maharajas' Express (with a stop at the Taj Mahal) as the ultimate experience. Travelers planning to visit the Taj Mahal or take the luxurious train ride will want to fly into Delhi, India's capital territory.

Petra, Jordan

The stunning ancient city of Petra is made up of several impressive structures carved into sandstone rock faces, including the famous Al-Khazneh. The city dates back thousands of years, making this UNESCO World Heritage site a must-visit for history buffs.

Passing through India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Bhutan, and Nepal, the Himalayas are home to some of the world's highest peaks — and that means breathtaking mountain views, too. For adventurous and active travelers, climbing Mount Everest (or at least trekking to Everest Base Camp) is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

American National Park Road Trip

The classic American road trip is a mainstay on many travelers' lists — and for good reason. The country's incredible national parks , including Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Yosemite, are best explored on road trips with stops at charming small towns and kitschy roadside attractions.

Great Wall of China

Stretching across China for thousands of miles, with sections dating back nearly 2,000 years, the Great Wall is regarded as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Visitors can hike along parts of the wall — some areas are located within driving distance of Beijing, so it's a perfect day trip from the city.

Easter Island

The hundreds of monolithic moai statues have drawn curious visitors to Easter Island for years. This remote Polynesian island is worth the lengthy trip for travelers hoping to see these impressive human figures, while also soaking in some incredible coastal views.

Northern Lights Trip

Catching a glimpse of the elusive northern lights is possible in several destinations close to the Arctic Circle, including Alaska, Iceland, Canada, Greenland, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. All of these places have incredible viewpoints (and even hotels where you can see the phenomenon from your bed ), in addition to great, wintry scenery. (The lights are best viewed from late fall through early spring.)

Thailand and Vietnam

A trip through Southeast Asia is a must for any traveler, especially foodies who love street eats. While you could spend weeks in each of these countries, Thailand and Vietnam can easily be paired for an exciting trip packed with lush scenery, cultural experiences, and delicious food. Have a little extra time to spare? Add Cambodia to the mix and include a visit to expansive Angkor Wat.

The Best Travel Literature of All Time

Like many travellers, you may have found yourself immersed in the voyages of those who have gone before you from time to time. While living vicariously is no replacement for being on the road, there are some utterly wonderful nonfiction travel books out there, which are the next best thing.

A Time of Gifts by Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

It’s quite genuinely impossible to create a comprehensive list of the best travel literature. While there’s a lot of replication of these types of lists out there, some books endure precisely because of their importance at the time or to other writers. Although some authors listed below deserve to have more than one of their books featured on this compendium of the greatest travel literature, only their finest work has been included. Consider it your gateway to that writer’s greater oeuvre, if you’ve not read any of their work previously; a reminder if you have. Similarly, non-male writers have often been unfortunately overlooked in the past and some real gems that deserve to be on the best travel literature of all-time lists have been overlooked.

The following aims to redress the balance a little. Consideration is also given to some of the works that defined people who are now better-known for their other exploits, because there’s no greater adventure than that of somebody whose travels inspired them to do something more important or lasting in the world beyond merely moving through space and time for travel’s sake. Here are twenty of the best pieces of travel literature ever written (theoretically), to guide you to your next read, to find inspiration for your next trip, or to simply use as a general reading checklist until your next journey.

A Time of Gifts (1977) – Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor

Writing about Paddy Leigh Fermor in 2020, it would be easy to dismiss the great writer as a privileged individual who was fortunate to stay with royalty and the well-to-do all across Europe as he sauntered from one place to the next. But that would be an awful disservice. A Time of Gifts is the first of a trilogy of books documenting his journey, on foot, from the Hook of Holland to Constantinople (Istanbul). His scholarship and complete immersion in every culture he encountered helped his writing transcend mere travel literature to reach a higher level of writing. You never feel as though he’s an outside observer trying to make sense of the foreign by superimposing his own beliefs. His prose has been described as baroque, and is densely layered with a deep intelligence, understanding and, above all, passion for everything he encounters. The trip itself was undertaken in 1933/4 and the Europe that Fermor uncovers on his peregrinations is one which is beginning to spiral blindly into major conflict. Somehow this aspect makes the random acts of kindness he experiences across Germany and the rest of the continent even more bittersweet.

Publisher: John Murray, Buy at Amazon.com

Arabian Sands (1959) – Sir Wilfred Thesiger

Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger (Photo: courtesy of P.S. Burton via Wikimedia Commons)

Another travel literature classic is Thesiger’s intrepid anthropological look at Bedouin culture and lifestyle in one of the remotest, most inhospitable places on earth: the Arabian Peninsula’s Rub’ al Khali. The setting for the journey is amid the embers of World War II, the repercussions of which were being felt worldwide, including among the Bedouin tribes who’d lived much in the same way they always had until the outside world intruded. In effect, this book offers a snapshot of a remarkable culture that was fast altering, which is what makes this, and many of the books written during the reign of the British Empire, fascinating historical documents. For all of the rightful condemnation of European colonialism, one thing is clear in this book: the fascination and inquisitive nature of the many British scholarly individuals sent to far-reaching corners of the globe created an immensely valuable cache of first-person accounts of cultures and peoples that may not have been recorded otherwise amid the inevitable and inescapable rise of globalisation of the time.

Publisher: Penguin Classics, Buy at Amazon.com

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1942) – Rebecca West

West’s voluminous, in-depth examination of Yugoslavia during her time travelling there in 1937 was designed to explore how the country was a reflection of its past. West spent six weeks journeying across the whole region with her husband and meeting eminent citizens along the way. Sadly, by the time the book was published, the Nazis had invaded and the country would never be the same again, which makes this yet another invaluable early-20 th -century document. What sets Black Lamb and Grey Falcon apart though is the level of exquisite detail and research dedicated to the subject. If there was any proof required that travel literature serves an invaluable purpose as a piece of primary historical evidence, then this may well be it.

Publisher: Canongate Books, Buy at Amazon.com

Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Border (2017) – Kapka Kassabova

Beautifully written and layered with a real sense of atmosphere, Kassabova’s haunting Border is one of the standout pieces of travel writing to be published in the last decade. Eastern Europe is one of the least explored regions of the world in travel literature. Owing perhaps in part to the secrecy and legacy of distrust brought about by the Cold War, even those who have travelled through as part of longer journeys (Paul Theroux in Pillars of Hercules or Bill Bryson in Neither Here Nor There ) scarcely shed any real light on the region. Here, Kassabova heads back to the nation of her birth (Bulgaria) to explore the fragments of political ideology, faith and race, and the blurred lines between them, that have developed around the border region separating Bulgaria from Greece and Turkey.

Publisher: Granta Books, Buy at Amazon.com

Border by Kapka Kasabova (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Down and Out in Paris and London (1933) – George Orwell

While much of travel literature is concerned with the voyage and seeking out the miraculous, the unique and the lesser known, Orwell took another route entirely. Down and Out in Paris and London does exactly what it says on the tin. It is a memoir of impoverished living in two of the world’s great cities, at a time when they were global beacons in terms of both power and culture. Not only does this book, in a very prescient move, eschew the superior tone of academia when examining the other, it also avoids all glamour in those cities, focussing entirely on the poor, the meek and the desperate. In Paris he lives on the edge of eviction, working the kitchens of a fancy establishment, while in London he lives the life of a tramp, moving from one bunkhouse and soup kitchen to the next, living day to day. It is to travel writing what the ‘method’ is to acting.

Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972) – Hunter S. Thompson

The outlier on this list (all good lists need one) is Hunter S. Thompson’s delightfully absurd, occasionally apocryphal and downright debauched novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas . In it, he created a new way of writing known as gonzo journalism, a style of storytelling which is found most commonly today in some documentaries, where the lines of fact and fiction become blurred and with the journalist placed as a central character in the story. This brilliant commentary on the flexible and inconsistent nature of truth was perfectly epitomised by the increasingly hallucinogenic recollections of protagonist Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo. The road trip to Las Vegas ultimately casts important light on an American society gripped by racism and violence (partly why the story is still so powerful today is that America hasn’t yet learned to grow up). As such it remains one of the most intriguing snapshots of America out there, surpassing the work of many strait-laced travel narratives in the process.

Publisher: Random House Inc., Buy at Amazon.com

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (Photo: Mathieu Croisetière via Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia (1975) – Paul Theroux

A perfect example of how gonzo journalism began to seep into travel literature comes from what is arguably the most important modern travelogue: The Great Railway Bazaar . In it, Theroux travels from London all the way to Southeast Asia and Japan, via India, then back to Europe via Russia’s Trans-Siberian railway. While Theroux upholds elements of the old school travel narrative – like the scholarly, studious approach and the inquisitive air – his journey by train is as much about the growing backpacker, hippie, trail and the western counterculture that encouraged it. Occasionally the line between fact and fiction is blurred in his writing, but only to better convey his interactions with the people he met. As such, you get a fascinating look at what could be called modern colonialism, whereby the train networks that were often built by colonial rulers in non-European nations across the world, like India and Burma, were now being used by a new generation in the post-colonial era to explore these newly-sovereign nations.

In Patagonia (1977) – Bruce Chatwin

Coming hot on the tail of Theroux’s above book is perhaps the most popular and enduring travel book of all time: In Patagonia . Bruce Chatwin starts it off with a direct nod to writing and journalism’s slide into apocrypha by framing his trip loosely around the search for remains of a “brontosaurus” found in a Patagonian cave, which he first found languishing in his grandparent’s house. The doubtful story behind this find sets him on a road where he aim to unravel various other mysteries whose only connection is geographical, including the final resting place of Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid, in the wild, empty spaces of South America. It’s a brilliant book formed of loose sections that don’t directly link to one another but has greatly influenced modern travel literature today.

Publisher: Vintage Classics, Buy at Amazon.com

In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

In Xanadu (1989) – William Dalrymple

One of the travel writers greatly influenced by Chatwin was William Dalrymple, whose own quest for his first book, In Xanadu , was framed as a search for the fabled palace of Kublai Khan, Xanadu. This type of narrative has always proven to be a ready source of inspiration for some of the better modern travel books; searching for answers to popular mysteries. It has a journalistic bent to it, and manages to sidestep the awkwardness of westerners merely travelling abroad and casting aspersions about the people and cultures they encounter through an imperial gaze, as is the criticism often lodged again some of the earlier works of travel writing. Here, Dalrymple follows in the footsteps of Marco Polo (following footsteps of somebody famous is also a common trope of travel literature) to find the palace. While Dalrymple restores elements of the scholarly, learned approach common to writers like Robert Byron and Paddy Leigh Fermor, you can feel the impact of those 70s writers as well.

Publisher: Flamingo, Buy at Amazon.com

In Xanadu by William Dalrymple (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Into the Wild (1996) – Jon Krakauer

Few gripping travel narratives manage to capture the why? of our impulse to roam quite like Jon Krakauer does in Into the Wild . The book is both harrowing and revelatory, while performing a third-person character study on a young man he never actually met. In 1992 Chris McCandless walked into the Alaskan wilderness and never came back out. The book tries to examine what had led him there in the first place, whether he’d intended to return at all, and why he wasn’t the first to try and cut all ties with modern society. Krakauer looks to others, such as Henry David Thoreau ( Walden is the original escape from society book and a must-read for anybody fascinated by this subject), who successfully parted from the rat race, as well as the reasons McCandless initially fled from well-to-do family life years before and never contacted them again in his search for something more profound and meaningful. While most readers may disagree with McCandless’s methods, his motives seem far more familiar and relatable.

Publisher: Pan Macmillan, Buy at Amazon.com

The Living Mountain (1977) – Nan Shepherd

Perhaps one of the finest pieces of nature writing ever committed to paper is The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd. Sadly, it’s also one of the most underrated books. The research for her book was undertaken in and around 1942, during the Second World War, which didn’t trouble the wilds of Scotland too badly. Here, the stark beauty of the Cairngorms seems to mirror the harsh reality of war. But Shepherd’s deep examination of the various microcosms of life that thrive on the region’s mountains is really a poem that exalts life. It’s a celebration of survival and endurance. Her wonderful book almost never made it to print, lying in a drawer for decades until a friend read it and encouraged her to seek out a publisher. We’re lucky it did.

The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

The Motorcycle Diaries (1992) – Che Guevara

Even if Che Guevara never became the revolutionary and icon of a generation that he did, The Motorcycle Diaries is a fascinating first-person account of travel’s capacity to broaden the mind. The young medic Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara sets out from his home in Buenos Aires with his friend Alberto Granado sharing a motorcycle ‘La Poderosa’ and in his pointed recollections, you can almost feel Che’s ideological shift. He sees poverty and pain and beauty in the poor communities they visit, and through this, we learn a lot about how Guevara became a key player in the Cuban Revolution. But it’s also a beautiful rumination about the paths we take in life and the importance of curiosity.

Publisher: Perennial, Buy at Amazon.com

Notes from a Small Island (1995) – Bill Bryson

You can’t really write a top travel literature list and omit Bill Bryson. He’s one of the finest travel writers still producing books. Notes from a Small Island is particularly intriguing because, while most of the books that make any top travel literature list tend to be written by Brits, this is a book about Britain, written by an American. And it’s a delightfully observed book at that, pinpointing the eccentricities and unusual aspects of the island nation that most Brits would never think twice about, but when seen through foreign eyes suddenly become absurd. Bryson is especially gifted at making even the most mundane things seem funny. His books neatly balance thorough research and scholarship with humour and keen observation, effectively amalgamating all of the key aspects of travel literature into one inimitable style.

Publisher: Black Swan, Buy at Amazon.com

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson (Photo: Wolf Gang via Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0)

On the Road (1957) – Jack Kerouac

Before modern travel literature’s more self-aware phase that started in the 1970s, we had what essentially kick-started the great 20 th -century American cultural upheaval: The Beat Movement. Kerouac was writing about sexual promiscuity, wanton drug use and giving the establishment the middle finger way before it was cool to do so. Well-educated and moving in New York’s literary circles, Kerouac’s thinly-veiled characters in On the Road (substituting Old Bull Lee for William S. Burroughs, Dean Moriarty for Neal Cassady, Carlo Marx for Allen Ginsberg, and Sal Paradise for himself) are painted into a quasi-fictional account of his cross-country jaunts in the late 1940s. The post-war world was much-changed; the white picket fence America with its Jim Crow segregation and uptight Bible-belt hypocrisy were no longer acceptable. Around the same time, J.D. Salinger was branding it phoney, while Kerouac was realising this in his own way, by embracing escapism and drugs. On the Road still resonates today; both the book and the Beats gave licence to a generation of youths to question the oppressive system that became all too obvious in the 60s.

On The Road by Jack Kerouac (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

The Road to Oxiana (1937) – Robert Byron

Much of the Afghanistan and Iran of Byron’s writing has disappeared, making the precision of his prose all the more valuable. The Road to Oxiana has all the classic elements of earlier travel narratives in it, scholarship, keen observation but also the kind of humour and casual presentation that would become far more popular in the writing styles common to the latter half of the 20 th century. Byron’s constant use of Marjoribanks to replace the name of the Persian ruler of the time was designed to evade censure or punishment in case his notebooks were confiscated and read. The humour of this rebelliousness is not lost when read today, even if some of his style may feel a little bit dated now. His architectural descriptions may be among some of the finest in all of travel literature.

The Road to Oxiana by Robert Byron (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Rome and a Villa (1952) – Eleanor Clark

Because the majority of travel writing is crafted around a voyage or quest of some sort, we expect the movement to transcend places, countries even. What Clark does exceptionally well in Rome and a Villa is offer an in-depth depiction of just one city: Rome. This book, although not particularly tied to or crafted around any one specific idea, offers a deeper understanding of The Eternal City based on Clark’s explorations, often on foot. Indeed, her scholarly treatment of the Italian capital brings the city’s rich, storied past to life in imaginative and illuminating ways that offer fresh insight on a place that we may easily think has already been well covered already. Which goes to show that places change with the times offering an opportunity for fresh perspectives. There’s nowhere that is dull or too well-known in travel writing if handled by the right scribe.

Publisher: Harper Perennial, Buy at Amazon.com

Shadow of the Silk Road (2007) – Colin Thubron

Colin Thubron’s fascination with worlds that are ostensibly closed off to westerners has often led him into places that many others wouldn’t think to go. He visited China before it had opened up to the world, and the same goes for Soviet Russia. In Shadow of the Silk Road Thubron exhibits why his books are perhaps the most masterfully crafted of all contemporary travel literature. His pacing and descriptive writing are exquisite, particularly in this book, in which he journeys from Xi’an to Antakya in Turkey following the old ways, through Central Asia, once known as the Silk Road. The worlds he uncovers and the people he meets are painstakingly woven into a rich text, much like a hand-woven Persian rug, that is one of the most evocative pieces of travel writing out there.

Publisher: Vintage, Buy at Amazon.com

Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Travels with Myself and Another (1979) – Martha Gellhorn

Even if Martha Gellhorn was writing today, she would rightly be upheld as one of the great journalists, but given that she was doing it decades ago, often better than her counterparts in a male-dominated field, is even more remarkable. The ‘Another’ that accompanies Gellhorn through much of the book was her former husband Ernest Hemingway, but the book also includes memoir from Africa in which she voyages solo. The book is presented as a collection of essays, a format that has become increasingly common in travel writing and which effectively allows the book to focus on more than one topic. Gellhorn’s writing includes keen observation, lively wit and a really sharp political outlook.

Publisher: Eland Publishing Ltd., Buy at Amazon.com

The Valleys of the Assassins (1934) – Freya Stark

Stark was an incredible human being. Fluent in numerous languages, including Farsi, she travelled the world often alone at a time when even men undertaking such journeys were considered intrepid. Stark was particularly drawn to the Middle East and was able to recount the stories of the women there, living in devout Muslim communities, in a way no man would ever have been able to do. She also discovered regions that had not been explored by Westerners before, including the Valley of the Assassins, which forms the basis of this eponymous book, receiving the Royal Geographical Society’s prestigious Back Award in the process. She continued to write books well into her 90s (releasing work over six decades) and died in Italy at the age of 100.

Publisher: Modern Library Inc., Buy at Amazon.com

Wild by Cheryl Strayed (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com)

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (2012) – Cheryl Strayed

Some may question this popular book’s inclusion on a list of the all-time greats, but it really has all the ingredients of a classic exploration of the human psyche. The physical duress that Strayed experienced on her hike of the Pacific Crest Trail (which runs from California’s border with Mexico to Washington’s border with Canada), and the gradual loss of her toenails as a result, is depicted with visceral precision. Her self-inflicted pain mirrors the mental health and dependency issues that plagued her before embarking on the feat, and in the process, we discover the restorative power of travel, of meeting new people and of forcing ourselves to step beyond our comfortably-positioned boundaries. Like any good travel literature, this book sheds light on why travel is so addictive, powerful and pertinent. Just like all the other books on this list, you’ll finish it wanting to plan your next trip.

Publisher: Atlantic Books, Buy at Amazon.com

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The Best Books of 2023

A Smithsonian magazine special report

The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2023

Take a trip without leaving home with these adventurous reads from this year

Laura Kiniry

Travel Correspondent

It’s often said that travel is all about the journey, whether it’s planning a remote island holiday or setting out on the adventure of a lifetime across the Arctic Ocean. But it can be almost as thrilling to roam the world from the comfort of our homes. Just take our pick of 2023 travel books, which include everything from humor-fueled essay collections and thought-provoking narratives to tomes brimming with full-page colorful photographs and tips on finding the most welcoming LGBTQ+ spots around the globe. They all share the uncanny ability to transport readers through time and space without ever having to open the front door.

Whether it’s a deep delve into a Balkan landscape of healing plants and foraging, or a more than 2,000-mile road trip through America’s racial history, here are ten travel books that are more than worthy of this year’s holiday wish lists.

Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance by Alvin Hall

From 1936 to 1967, the Green Book served as an annual travel guide for African Americans, helping them to identify welcoming hotels, restaurants, gas stations and other businesses across the United States during the Jim Crow era. Compiled by Black New York City postman Victor Hugo Green , this essential reference publication included places like Manhattan’s Hotel Theresa , once considered the “Waldorf of Harlem,” and the Moulin Rouge Hotel in Las Vegas, frequented by celebrities like Harry Belafonte and Ella Fitzgerald during its five-month stint in 1955.

Award-winning broadcaster Alvin Hall first learned about the Green Book in 2015, and he was immediately intrigued. Several years later, he and a friend, activist Janée Woods Weber , set out on a 2,000-plus-mile cross-country road trip from Detroit to New Orleans, visiting many of the establishments once featured in the guide’s pages. (Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has a nearly complete collection of the Green Book , which Hall utilized.) Along the way, Hall also gathered memories from some of the guide’s last surviving users.

The result, Driving the Green Book: a Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance , is a poignant 288-page journey along America’s open roads, delving into the country’s racial past, detailing the Green Book ’s life-saving history and bringing it all together in one remarkable read.

Driving the Green Book: A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance

Join award-winning broadcaster Alvin Hall on a journey through America’s haunted racial past, with the legendary Green Book as your guide.

The Last Ride of the Pony Express: My 2,000-Mile Horseback Journey Into the Old West by Will Grant

In 2019, American journalist Will Grant embarked on a five-month, 2,000 mile journey on horseback from Missouri to California. His goal: to follow the historic route of the Pony Express , a legendary frontier mail system operating between April 1860 and October 1861, which used a series of horse-mounted riders and relay stations to deliver mail from one end to the other in just ten days. Although the express service went bankrupt after only 18 months, it remains an iconic symbol of America’s Old West.

Grant chronicles his 142-day adventure in The Last Ride of the Pony Express , a first-person narrative describing his trip across the Great Plains of Nebraska and the sagebrush steppe of Wyoming in the company of his two horses, Badger and Chicken Fry. While Grant reflects on the West’s modernization over time, it’s his vivid descriptions of the communities and local residents—including ranchers, farmers and migrant sheep herders—along the way that make the book a real page-turner.

The Last Ride of the Pony Express: My 2,000-mile Horseback Journey into the Old West

The Last Ride of the Pony Express is a tale of adventure by a horseman who defies most modern conveniences, and is an unforgettable narrative that will forever change how you see the West, the Pony Express, and America as a whole.

Unforgettable Journeys Europe: Discover the Joys of Slow Travel

The latest in the Unforgettable Journeys series by DK Eyewitness, a publisher of nonfiction books known for its visual travel guides, Unforgettable Journeys Europe highlights the notion that travel really is all about the “getting there.” This inspirational tome details 150 of Europe’s best slow adventures, such as kayaking through Lithuania and crossing the Arctic Circle by train.

The bucket list is organized by modes of transportation, with sections titled “By Bike” and “By Rail,” for example. Illustrations, photos, maps and plenty of practical information (including start and end points for trails, difficulty ratings and website links) are then spread throughout the text, making the book as much colorful reference as it is inspiring read. In the “On Foot” chapter, there’s a description of Scotland’s Fife Pilgrim Way , a 56-mile trek along an ancient pilgrim route with cathedral and countryside views. Along with details on what to see during the multiday hike, the book features a selection of highlighted tips, like what to do (pick wild berries while passing through Clatto Reservoir ) and how to splurge (dinner and an overnight stay at the cozy, Michelin-starred Peat Inn ) en route.

Unforgettable Journeys Europe: Discover the Joys of Slow Travel (Dk Eyewitness)

Inspirational travel book covering 150 of Europe's most incredible journeys, including routes on foot and by bike, road, rail and water.

Elixir: In the Valley at the End of Time by Kapka Kassabova

After a decade of living in the Scottish Highlands, native Bulgarian Kapka Kassabova returned to her roots in southwestern Bulgaria’s remote Mesta Valley, a rural region known for its array of wild crops and their vast medicinal properties. Over several seasons (Kassabova’s move occurred at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic), the poet and writer set out to study the deep relationship between the area’s people and plants, as well as with the land itself. Her resulting text—with chapters like “Pine Syrup,” “Honey Sellers” and “Shepherd’s Superfood”—is an autobiographical exploration of one of the globe’s lesser-known corners, one brimming with forages, healers and a wealth of folk traditions.

“ Elixir is the vibrant, beautiful story of a singular, remarkable place,” writes Foreword book reviewer Catherine Thureson. “It issues a call to reclaim the physical, emotional and spiritual connection between humanity and the natural world.”

Elixir: In the Valley at the End of Time

In Elixir , in a wild river valley and amid the three mountains that define it, Kapka Kassabova seeks out the deep connection between people, plants, and place.

The Life Cycle by Kate Rawles

British writer and cyclist Kate Rawles has a penchant for raising awareness about environmental challenges through her own adventures—and inspiring action in the process. In 2006, Rawles cycled 4,553 miles from Texas to Alaska , interviewing Americans about climate change along the way. Her latest endeavor—an 8,288-mile, 13-month journey across the length of the Andes Mountains on a self-built bamboo bicycle she nicknamed “Woody”—is the basis for her new book, The Life Cycle .

During this largely solo endeavor in 2017 and 2018, the author crossed some of the planet’s most diverse ecosystems, including South America’s Atacama Desert and the Bolivian salt flats. Simultaneously, she found herself witnessing the devastating effects of extreme biodiversity loss caused by industries such as logging and gold mining, and met with activists and communities working to regenerate these habitats—sharing their concerns and insight throughout the narrative.

The Life Cycle: 8,000 Miles in the Andes by Bamboo Bike

Pedalling hard for thirteen months, eco adventurer Kate Rawles cycled the length of the Andes on an eccentric bicycle she built herself. The Life Cycle charts her mission to find out why biodiversity is so important, what's happening to it, and what can be done to protect it.

Unravelling the Silk Road by Chris Aslan

An extremely well-researched story of three ancient trade routes that helped define a continent, Chris Aslan’s Unravelling the Silk Road “merges trauma with textiles to track the past and present experiences of the people of Central Asia,” writes author Clare Hunter . He explores the roles played by wool, a textile used by the region’s nomads for both yurts and clothing; silk, a commodity that was once more valuable than gold; and cotton, the cause of Russian and then Soviet colonization, since it provided cheap material for the global superpower.

Turkish-born Aslan interweaves his own personal experiences (the author once picked cotton with locals and worked with nomadic yak herders in Central Asia’s Pamir Mountains) with the history of each route and its impact on the lives of local residents —as well as the region itself. Aslan also examines how political and cultural changes are affecting new trade routes and the people who depend on them.

Unravelling the Silk Road: Travels and Textiles in Central Asia

Veteran traveler and textile expert Chris Aslan explores the Silk, Wool and Cotton Roads of Central Asia.

The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise by Pico Iyer

British-born essayist and acclaimed writer Pico Iyer is no stranger to travel journalism. The author—whose childhood was divided among English, Indian and U.S. cultures—is known for works like 1989’s Video Night in Kathmandu , a stark look at modern Asia, and The Global Soul , a 2001 collection of essays on finding home in a world of international airports and shopping malls. For more than 40 years, Iyer has traveled the globe, reflecting on the planet and our role within it.

“After years of travel, I’d begun to wonder what kind of paradise can ever be found in a world of unceasing conflict,” writes Iyer in his latest book, The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise , “and whether the very search for it might not simply aggravate our differences.” The result is a retrospective look at his own travels and encounters—from North Korea’s capital city of Pyongyang to Jerusalem’s Ethiopian chapels—through the idea of “paradise,” what it means and whether it exists.

The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise

Traveling from Iran to North Korea, from the Dalai Lama’s Himalayas to the ghostly temples of Japan, Pico Iyer brings together a lifetime of explorations to upend our ideas of utopia and ask how we might find peace in the midst of difficulty and suffering.

The Pride Atlas: 500 Iconic Destinations for Queer Travelers by Maartje Hensen

Big, bold and colorful, The Pride Atlas is a valuable resource for LGBTQ+ folks and their allies, as well as a perfect coffee table topper. Compiled by queer author and photographer Maartje Hensen , its 400 pages are brimming with eye-catching photos and practical information, such as websites like Meetup and Couchsurfing that are useful for connecting with similarly minded locals and travelers, and resources regarding laws and cultural attitudes worldwide.

At the heart of the book are 500 destinations from around the globe, each one of them highlighting a way of engaging with LGBTQ+ culture. You’ll find drag shows, Pride parades, campsites, microbrew pubs and other places, from San Francisco’s Transgender District to Haircuts for Anyone , an inclusive and affirmative hair salon in Montreal that charges by sliding scale.

“Hopefully,” writes Hensen, “ The Pride Atlas expands your horizons and inspires you to go out into the world, to (un)learn from others … because, like gender, the world doesn’t fit into binary.” Indeed.

The Pride Atlas: 500 Iconic Destinations for Queer Travelers

Combining immersive photography with expertly researched travel writing, this is the ultimate guidebook for LGBTQ+ travelers—whether you're planning your next getaway, daydreaming from the comfort of your armchair, or seeking to learn about queer culture in other parts of the world.

Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel by Shahnaz Habib

An enlightening and entertaining debut essay collection by a U.S.-based Indian Muslim author, Airplane Mode brings a unique and under-represented perspective to the world of travel. Shahnaz Habib approaches such topics as the origins of passports, colonial modes of thinking about travel—like safaris and pilgrimages—and terms like “pseudiscovery,” which she uses to describe an explorer’s claim of discovering something that’s existed for thousands of years, with both wit and curiosity, incorporating her own personal narratives to boot.

Perhaps Annabel Abbs, author of Windswept: Walking the Paths of Trailblazing Women , says it best in her praise for Airplane Mode, which has been long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence . She calls it “a fascinating, wide-ranging and insightful travelogue that poses some of the biggest questions of all: Who gets to travel, and what is it that makes us so keen to travel in the first place?”

Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel

This witty personal and cultural history of travel from the perspective of a Third World-raised woman of color, Airplane Mode , asks: what does it mean to be a joyous traveler when we live in the ruins of colonialism, capitalism and climate change?

Oh My Mother!: A Memoir in Nine Adventures by Connie Wang

The closest Chinese expression to “Oh, my god” is wode ma ya , which literally translates to “Oh, my mother.” It’s a declaration of astonishment, as well as the title for journalist Connie Wang ’s humorous and heartfelt book, Oh My Mother!: A Memoir in Nine Adventures . Wang details the complicated relationship between herself and her stubborn and “wildly opinionated” mother, Qing Li, across nine essays, taking readers from time-share properties in Cancun and Aruba to a Magic Mike strip show in Las Vegas. “This is our memoir—a long personal essay, if you will—and it was forged through shared fact-checking,” Wang writes in the book. “Qing was the first person to read each chapter as it was written, and she is this book’s first editor.” According to Kirkus Reviews , the author “drives to the heart of how a daughter comes to know her mother as someone with a life beyond motherhood.”

Oh My Mother!: A Memoir in Nine Adventures

A dazzling mother-daughter adventure around the world in pursuit of self-discovery, a family reckoning, and Asian American defiance

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Laura Kiniry | READ MORE

Laura Kiniry is a San Francisco-based freelance writer specializing in food, drink, and travel. She contributes to a variety of outlets including American Way , O-The Oprah Magazine , BBC.com , and numerous AAA pubs.

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Largest Compilation of Structured Essays and Exams

My Best Trip Essay for Children (900 Words)

December 24, 2017 by Study Mentor Leave a Comment

This is a write up on my dream international trip which I had been yearning to take for my complete life. I have visited many exotic locations across India but my dream came true when my dad announced of the trip to Bangkok and Pattaya. I was beyond describing my happiness. My dreams were finally in front of me waiting for me to grab them.

We had planned a seven day trip to the country and we were aiming to enjoy every moment of that experience. Along with the four of us- me, my parents and my brother; some of our relatives were also accompanying us. Finally the day arrived when we had to leave Delhi.

Our taxi arrived at our gates and we picked up our relatives before leaving for IGI Airport Terminal 3. At the entry, heavily armed guards searched us for any harmful material and then proceeded to check our tickets.

Once we were let through, we got our tickets stamped. We were checked again thoroughly for security purposes and our baggage was taken away. We traveled through the airport and we stood gaping at the splendor of the place.

After a while, an announcement was made of the delay in our trip by 2 hours. But that did not dampen our spirits. We kept on roaming the airport. When we went further into the lounge area, we saw a large glass structure through which multitude of airplanes were visible at once. It was a panoramic view. After waiting for a bit, we went inside the planes which were spacious and comfortable.

Finally, after a Six hour long ride we landed at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Thailand. Then we boarded a Lamborghini to reach Pattaya. I was thrilled to experience the car once in my whole life. It all felt so surreal.

Upon reaching Pattaya, we booked ourselves for a stay at the Holiday Inn. Holiday Inn overlooked the Beach Road. The sea extended in front of us looking as pretty as the Ishtar. The blue water and the blue sky meeting at the horizon could not be distinguished from one another.

The salty taste of the air was somewhat refreshing. That day, we relaxed on the beach chatting and giggling heartily and then went for some local shopping around. Fruits and juices in Pattaya are next to amazing. One should never miss out on fruit when visiting Pattaya.

The next day, we ventured early into the streets. The day held a lot for us. We went to the coral island in a ferry ride which was again loved by all of us. On reaching the beach, we just took off our slippers and basked in the sunlight. After a while, I strutted towards water and felt it crashing at my feet.

I was overwhelmed. I ventured into some water sports which included diving and motor riding. We even went to see a cultural show named Alcazar. It was a cultural feast of all the cultures round the world. It was definitely a sight to behold. After spending a while roaming, we returned back to our hotels and immediately crashed out due to exhaustion.

The next day we woke up early and went to Bangkok. I soaked in the culture of Bangkok and tried to experience that how differently people lead their lives. We checked into Baiyoke Sky tower, one of the most premium hotels of Bangkok.

On the second day of Bangkok, we went for sightseeing. We experienced the culture of that of that place in the temples we saw.

After exploring the city with a local guide, we went touring Siam Underwater museum. It is situated in Siam Paragon Mall. The underground aquarium is one of that largest in southeast Asia, housing thousand of exotic species.

It was an altogether different feeling of walking through glass tunnels surrounded by water and beautiful creatures. I even went for a glass boat ride where we fed the fishes. Snorkeling in the aquarium was one helluva experience itself.

In the night, we roamed across the night markets there. These markets were known for haggling. The night life was quiet amazing itself with open pubs, live music, people playing guitars, foreigners downing beer.

I opened my eyes to the sunlight simmering inside through the curtains. Today was an adventure and the thrill of visiting Disney World was taking me by spins. That place was beauty personified. With flowers and caricatures of Disney all over the place, I felt like a princess. I got a lot of pictures clicked to flaunt the trip to my friends.

We ventured onto rides after that. I experienced a roller coaster for the first time in my life. The thrill was tying my stomach into knots. After having the time of my life in that place, we went away to our suite for the night.

We had planned our next trip to Safari World which is a tourist attraction and consists of two parks namely, Marine Park and Safari Park. There was a drive trough facility at Safari Park. Safari Park was basically a zoo with animals left in wild. We were not allowed to get off our cars without the permission of our guide. I took this opportunity of seeing the wild animals from so close. It looked as if the animals were ready to pounce off any moment.

At one spot, we saw about seven tigers together, some resting, some eating and some of them were sprawled upon the dense roots of the tree. After that we went to The Marine Park. There were a couple of shows scheduled for us like the Dolphin show, the Orangutan show and the Cowboy show. It was amazing to see the animals trained so well and perform the tricks with such precision.

But what stole the limelight was the Cowboy show where some actors performed a script. The act was pretty comical and was based on the concept of thieves and rogues. We then dispersed off to our hotel with good memories to take back to our place.

So this is how our trip ended. It was my first international trip and might I say that it definitely burnt a hole in my pocket. But it was definitely worth the experience.

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40 Best Essays of All Time (Including Links & Writing Tips)

I wanted to improve my writing skills. I thought that reading the forty best essays of all time would bring me closer to my goal.

I had little money (buying forty collections of essays was out of the question) so I’ve found them online instead. I’ve hacked through piles of them, and finally, I’ve found the great ones. Now I want to share the whole list with you (with the addition of my notes about writing). Each item on the list has a direct link to the essay, so please click away and indulge yourself. Also, next to each essay, there’s an image of the book that contains the original work.

About this essay list:

Reading essays is like indulging in candy; once you start, it’s hard to stop. I sought out essays that were not only well-crafted but also impactful. These pieces genuinely shifted my perspective. Whether you’re diving in for enjoyment or to hone your writing, these essays promise to leave an imprint. It’s fascinating how an essay can resonate with you, and even if details fade, its essence remains. I haven’t ranked them in any way; they’re all stellar. Skim through, explore the summaries, and pick up some writing tips along the way. For more essay gems, consider “Best American Essays” by Joyce Carol Oates or “101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think” curated by Brianna Wiest.

40 Best Essays of All Time (With Links And Writing Tips)

1. david sedaris – laugh, kookaburra.

david sedaris - the best of me essay collection

A great family drama takes place against the backdrop of the Australian wilderness. And the Kookaburra laughs… This is one of the top essays of the lot. It’s a great mixture of family reminiscences, travel writing, and advice on what’s most important in life. You’ll also learn an awful lot about the curious culture of the Aussies.

Writing tips from the essay:

Use analogies (you can make it funny or dramatic to achieve a better effect): “Don’t be afraid,” the waiter said, and he talked to the kookaburra in a soothing, respectful voice, the way you might to a child with a switchblade in his hand”.
You can touch a few cognate stories in one piece of writing . Reveal the layers gradually. Intertwine them and arrange for a grand finale where everything is finally clear.
Be on the side of the reader. Become their friend and tell the story naturally, like around the dinner table.
Use short, punchy sentences. Tell only as much as is required to make your point vivid.
Conjure sentences that create actual feelings: “I had on a sweater and a jacket, but they weren’t quite enough, and I shivered as we walked toward the body, and saw that it was a . . . what, exactly?”
You may ask a few tough questions in a row to provoke interest and let the reader think.

2. Charles D’Ambrosio – Documents

Charles D'Ambrosio - Loitering - New and Collected Essays

Do you think your life punches you in the face all too often? After reading this essay, you will change your mind. Reading about loss and hardships often makes us sad at first, but then enables us to feel grateful for our lives . D’Ambrosio shares his documents (poems, letters) that had a major impact on his life, and brilliantly shows how not to let go of the past.

The most powerful stories are about your family and the childhood moments that shaped your life.
You don’t need to build up tension and pussyfoot around the crux of the matter. Instead, surprise the reader by telling it like it is: “The poem was an allegory about his desire to leave our family.” Or: “My father had three sons. I’m the eldest; Danny, the youngest, killed himself sixteen years ago”.
You can use real documents and quotes from your family and friends. It makes it so much more personal and relatable.
Don’t cringe before the long sentence if you know it’s a strong one.
At the end of the essay, you may come back to the first theme to close the circuit.
Using slightly poetic language is acceptable, as long as it improves the story.

3. E. B. White – Once more to the lake

What does it mean to be a father? Can you see your younger self, reflected in your child? This beautiful essay tells the story of the author, his son, and their traditional stay at a placid lake hidden within the forests of Maine. This place of nature is filled with sunshine and childhood memories. It also provides for one of the greatest meditations on nature and the passing of time.

Use sophisticated language, but not at the expense of readability.
Use vivid language to trigger the mirror neurons in the reader’s brain: “I took along my son, who had never had any fresh water up his nose and who had seen lily pads only from train windows”.
It’s important to mention universal feelings that are rarely talked about (it helps to create a bond between two minds): “You remember one thing, and that suddenly reminds you of another thing. I guess I remembered clearest of all the early mornings when the lake was cool and motionless”.
Animate the inanimate: “this constant and trustworthy body of water”.
Mentioning tales of yore is a good way to add some mystery and timelessness to your piece.
Using double, or even triple “and” in one sentence is fine. It can make the sentence sing.

4. Zadie Smith – Fail Better

Aspiring writers feel tremendous pressure to perform. The daily quota of words often turns out to be nothing more than gibberish. What then? Also, should the writer please the reader or should she be fully independent? What does it mean to be a writer, anyway? This essay is an attempt to answer these questions, but its contents are not only meant for scribblers. Within it, you’ll find some great notes about literary criticism, how we treat art , and the responsibility of the reader.

A perfect novel ? There’s no such thing.
The novel always reflects the inner world of the writer. That’s why we’re fascinated with writers.
Writing is not simply about craftsmanship, but about taking your reader to the unknown lands. In the words of Christopher Hitchens: “Your ideal authors ought to pull you from the foundering of your previous existence, not smilingly guide you into a friendly and peaceable harbor.”
Style comes from your unique personality and the perception of the world. It takes time to develop it.
Never try to tell it all. “All” can never be put into language. Take a part of it and tell it the best you can.
Avoid being cliché. Try to infuse new life into your writing .
Writing is about your way of being. It’s your game. Paradoxically, if you try to please everyone, your writing will become less appealing. You’ll lose the interest of the readers. This rule doesn’t apply in the business world where you have to write for a specific person (a target audience).
As a reader, you have responsibilities too. According to the critics, every thirty years, there’s just a handful of great novels. Maybe it’s true. But there’s also an element of personal connection between the reader and the writer. That’s why for one person a novel is a marvel, while for the other, nothing special at all. That’s why you have to search and find the author who will touch you.

5. Virginia Woolf – Death of the Moth

Amid an ordinary day, sitting in a room of her own, Virginia Woolf tells about the epic struggle for survival and the evanescence of life. This short essay is truly powerful. In the beginning, the atmosphere is happy. Life is in full force. And then, suddenly, it fades away. This sense of melancholy would mark the last years of Woolf’s life.

The melody of language… A good sentence is like music: “Moths that fly by day are not properly to be called moths; they do not excite that pleasant sense of dark autumn nights and ivy-blossom which the commonest yellow- underwing asleep in the shadow of the curtain never fails to rouse in us”.
You can show the grandest in the mundane (for example, the moth at your window and the drama of life and death).
Using simple comparisons makes the style more lucid: “Being intent on other matters I watched these futile attempts for a time without thinking, unconsciously waiting for him to resume his flight, as one waits for a machine, that has stopped momentarily, to start again without considering the reason of its failure”.

6. Meghan Daum – My Misspent Youth

Meghan Daum - My Misspent Youth - Essays

Many of us, at some point or another, dream about living in New York. Meghan Daum’s take on the subject differs slightly from what you might expect. There’s no glamour, no Broadway shows, and no fancy restaurants. Instead, there’s the sullen reality of living in one of the most expensive cities in the world. You’ll get all the juicy details about credit cards, overdue payments, and scrambling for survival. It’s a word of warning. But it’s also a great story about shattered fantasies of living in a big city. Word on the street is: “You ain’t promised mañana in the rotten manzana.”

You can paint a picture of your former self. What did that person believe in? What kind of world did he or she live in?
“The day that turned your life around” is a good theme you may use in a story. Memories of a special day are filled with emotions. Strong emotions often breed strong writing.
Use cultural references and relevant slang to create a context for your story.
You can tell all the details of the story, even if in some people’s eyes you’ll look like the dumbest motherfucker that ever lived. It adds to the originality.
Say it in a new way: “In this mindset, the dollars spent, like the mechanics of a machine no one bothers to understand, become an abstraction, an intangible avenue toward self-expression, a mere vehicle of style”.
You can mix your personal story with the zeitgeist or the ethos of the time.

7. Roger Ebert – Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Probably the greatest film critic of all time, Roger Ebert, tells us not to rage against the dying of the light. This essay is full of courage, erudition, and humanism. From it, we learn about what it means to be dying (Hitchens’ “Mortality” is another great work on that theme). But there’s so much more. It’s a great celebration of life too. It’s about not giving up, and sticking to your principles until the very end. It brings to mind the famous scene from Dead Poets Society where John Keating (Robin Williams) tells his students: “Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary”.

Start with a powerful sentence: “I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear.”
Use quotes to prove your point -”‘Ask someone how they feel about death’, he said, ‘and they’ll tell you everyone’s gonna die’. Ask them, ‘In the next 30 seconds?’ No, no, no, that’s not gonna happen”.
Admit the basic truths about reality in a childlike way (especially after pondering quantum physics) – “I believe my wristwatch exists, and even when I am unconscious, it is ticking all the same. You have to start somewhere”.
Let other thinkers prove your point. Use quotes and ideas from your favorite authors and friends.

8. George Orwell – Shooting an Elephant

Even after one reading, you’ll remember this one for years. The story, set in British Burma, is about shooting an elephant (it’s not for the squeamish). It’s also the most powerful denunciation of colonialism ever put into writing. Orwell, apparently a free representative of British rule, feels to be nothing more than a puppet succumbing to the whim of the mob.

The first sentence is the most important one: “In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people — the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me”.
You can use just the first paragraph to set the stage for the whole piece of prose.
Use beautiful language that stirs the imagination: “I remember that it was a cloudy, stuffy morning at the beginning of the rains.” Or: “I watched him beating his bunch of grass against his knees, with that preoccupied grandmotherly air that elephants have.”
If you’ve ever been to war, you will have a story to tell: “(Never tell me, by the way, that the dead look peaceful. Most of the corpses I have seen looked devilish.)”
Use simple words, and admit the sad truth only you can perceive: “They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching”.
Share words of wisdom to add texture to the writing: “I perceived at this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his freedom that he destroys.”
I highly recommend reading everything written by Orwell, especially if you’re looking for the best essay collections on Amazon or Goodreads.

9. George Orwell – A Hanging

It’s just another day in Burma – time to hang a man. Without much ado, Orwell recounts the grim reality of taking another person’s life. A man is taken from his cage and in a few minutes, he’s going to be hanged. The most horrible thing is the normality of it. It’s a powerful story about human nature. Also, there’s an extraordinary incident with the dog, but I won’t get ahead of myself.

Create brilliant, yet short descriptions of characters: “He was a Hindu, a puny wisp of a man, with a shaven head and vague liquid eyes. He had a thick, sprouting mustache, absurdly too big for his body, rather like the mustache of a comic man on the films”.
Understand and share the felt presence of a unique experience: “It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man”.
Make your readers hear the sound that will stay with them forever: “And then when the noose was fixed, the prisoner began crying out on his god. It was a high, reiterated cry of “Ram! Ram! Ram! Ram!”
Make the ending original by refusing the tendency to seek closure or summing it up.

10. Christopher Hitchens – Assassins of The Mind

Christopher Hitchens - Arguably - Essays

In one of the greatest essays written in defense of free speech, Christopher Hitchens shares many examples of how modern media kneel to the explicit threats of violence posed by Islamic extremists. He recounts the story of his friend, Salman Rushdie, author of Satanic Verses who, for many years, had to watch over his shoulder because of the fatwa of Ayatollah Khomeini. With his usual wit, Hitchens shares various examples of people who died because of their opinions and of editors who refuse to publish anything related to Islam because of fear (and it was written long before the Charlie Hebdo massacre). After reading the essay, you realize that freedom of expression is one of the most precious things we have and that we have to fight for it. I highly recommend all essay collections penned by Hitchens, especially the ones written for Vanity Fair.

Assume that the readers will know the cultural references. When they do, their self-esteem goes up – they are a part of an insider group.
When proving your point, give a variety of real-life examples from eclectic sources. Leave no room for ambiguity or vagueness. Research and overall knowledge are essential here.
Use italics to emphasize a specific word or phrase (here I use the underlining): “We live now in a climate where every publisher and editor and politician has to weigh in advance the possibility of violent Muslim reprisal. In consequence, several things have not happened.”
Think about how to make it sound more original: “So there is now a hidden partner in our cultural and academic and publishing and the broadcasting world: a shadowy figure that has, uninvited, drawn up a chair to the table.”

11. Christopher Hitchens – The New Commandments

It’s high time to shatter the tablets and amend the biblical rules of conduct. Watch, as Christopher Hitchens slays one commandment after the other on moral, as well as historical grounds. For example, did you know that there are many versions of the divine law dictated by God to Moses which you can find in the Bible? Aren’t we thus empowered to write our version of a proper moral code? If you approach it with an open mind, this essay may change the way you think about the Bible and religion.

Take the iconoclastic approach. Have a party on the hallowed soil.
Use humor to undermine orthodox ideas (it seems to be the best way to deal with an established authority).
Use sarcasm and irony when appropriate (or not): “Nobody is opposed to a day of rest. The international Communist movement got its start by proclaiming a strike for an eight-hour day on May 1, 1886, against Christian employers who used child labor seven days a week”.
Defeat God on legal grounds: “Wise lawmakers know that it is a mistake to promulgate legislation that is impossible to obey”.
Be ruthless in the logic of your argument. Provide evidence.

12. Phillip Lopate – Against Joie de Vivre

Philip Lopate - The Art Of Personal Essay

While reading this fantastic essay, this quote from Slavoj Žižek kept coming back to me: “I think that the only life of deep satisfaction is a life of eternal struggle, especially struggle with oneself. If you want to remain happy, just remain stupid. Authentic masters are never happy; happiness is a category of slaves”. I can bear the onus of happiness or joie de vivre for some time. But this force enables me to get free and wallow in the sweet feelings of melancholy and nostalgia. By reading this work of Lopate, you’ll enter into the world of an intelligent man who finds most social rituals a drag. It’s worth exploring.

Go against the grain. Be flamboyant and controversial (if you can handle it).
Treat the paragraph like a group of thoughts on one theme. Next paragraph, next theme.
Use references to other artists to set the context and enrich the prose: “These sunny little canvases with their talented innocence, the third-generation spirit of Montmartre, bore testimony to a love of life so unbending as to leave an impression of rigid narrow-mindedness as extreme as any Savonarola. Their rejection of sorrow was total”.
Capture the emotions in life that are universal, yet remain unspoken.
Don’t be afraid to share your intimate experiences.

13. Philip Larkin – The Pleasure Principle

Philip Larkin - Jazz Writings, and other essays

This piece comes from the Required Writing collection of personal essays. Larkin argues that reading in verse should be a source of intimate pleasure – not a medley of unintelligible thoughts that only the author can (or can’t?) decipher. It’s a sobering take on modern poetry and a great call to action for all those involved in it. Well worth a read.

Write about complicated ideas (such as poetry) simply. You can change how people look at things if you express yourself enough.
Go boldly. The reader wants a bold writer: “We seem to be producing a new kind of bad poetry, not the old kind that tries to move the reader and fails, but one that does not even try”.
Play with words and sentence length. Create music: “It is time some of you playboys realized, says the judge, that reading a poem is hard work. Fourteen days in stir. Next case”.
Persuade the reader to take action. Here, direct language is the most effective.

14. Sigmund Freud – Thoughts for the Times on War and Death

Sigmund Freud - On Murder, Mourning and Melancholia

This essay reveals Freud’s disillusionment with the whole project of Western civilization. How the peaceful European countries could engage in a war that would eventually cost over 17 million lives? What stirs people to kill each other? Is it their nature, or are they puppets of imperial forces with agendas of their own? From the perspective of time, this work by Freud doesn’t seem to be fully accurate. Even so, it’s well worth your time.

Commence with long words derived from Latin. Get grandiloquent, make your argument incontrovertible, and leave your audience discombobulated.
Use unending sentences, so that the reader feels confused, yet impressed.
Say it well: “In this way, he enjoyed the blue sea and the grey; the beauty of snow-covered mountains and green meadowlands; the magic of northern forests and the splendor of southern vegetation; the mood evoked by landscapes that recall great historical events, and the silence of untouched nature”.
Human nature is a subject that never gets dry.

15. Zadie Smith – Some Notes on Attunement

“You are privy to a great becoming, but you recognize nothing” – Francis Dolarhyde. This one is about the elusiveness of change occurring within you. For Zadie, it was hard to attune to the vibes of Joni Mitchell – especially her Blue album. But eventually, she grew up to appreciate her genius, and all the other things changed as well. This top essay is all about the relationship between humans, and art. We shouldn’t like art because we’re supposed to. We should like it because it has an instantaneous, emotional effect on us. Although, according to Stansfield (Gary Oldman) in Léon, liking Beethoven is rather mandatory.

Build an expectation of what’s coming: “The first time I heard her I didn’t hear her at all”.
Don’t be afraid of repetition if it feels good.
Psychedelic drugs let you appreciate things you never appreciated.
Intertwine a personal journey with philosophical musings.
Show rather than tell: “My friends pitied their eyes. The same look the faithful give you as you hand them back their “literature” and close the door in their faces”.
Let the poets speak for you: “That time is past, / And all its aching joys are now no
more, / And all its dizzy raptures”.
By voicing your anxieties, you can heal the anxieties of the reader. In that way, you say: “I’m just like you. I’m your friend in this struggle”.
Admit your flaws to make your persona more relatable.

16. Annie Dillard – Total Eclipse

Annie Dillard - Teaching A stone to talk

My imagination was always stirred by the scene of the solar eclipse in Pharaoh, by Boleslaw Prus. I wondered about the shock of the disoriented crowd when they saw how their ruler could switch off the light. Getting immersed in this essay by Annie Dillard has a similar effect. It produces amazement and some kind of primeval fear. It’s not only the environment that changes; it’s your mind and the perception of the world. After the eclipse, nothing is going to be the same again.

Yet again, the power of the first sentence draws you in: “It had been like dying, that sliding down the mountain pass”.
Don’t miss the extraordinary scene. Then describe it: “Up in the sky, like a crater from some distant cataclysm, was a hollow ring”.
Use colloquial language. Write as you talk. Short sentences often win.
Contrast the numinous with the mundane to enthrall the reader.

17. Édouard Levé – When I Look at a Strawberry, I Think of a Tongue

This suicidally beautiful essay will teach you a lot about the appreciation of life and the struggle with mental illness. It’s a collection of personal, apparently unrelated thoughts that show us the rich interior of the author. You look at the real-time thoughts of another person, and then recognize the same patterns within yourself… It sounds like a confession of a person who’s about to take their life, and it’s striking in its originality.

Use the stream-of-consciousness technique and put random thoughts on paper. Then, polish them: “I have attempted suicide once, I’ve been tempted four times to attempt it”.
Place the treasure deep within the story: “When I look at a strawberry, I think of a tongue, when I lick one, of a kiss”.
Don’t worry about what people might think. The more you expose, the more powerful the writing. Readers also take part in the great drama. They experience universal emotions that mostly stay inside. You can translate them into writing.

18. Gloria E. Anzaldúa – How to Tame a Wild Tongue

Anzaldúa, who was born in south Texas, had to struggle to find her true identity. She was American, but her culture was grounded in Mexico. In this way, she and her people were not fully respected in either of the countries. This essay is an account of her journey of becoming the ambassador of the Chicano (Mexican-American) culture. It’s full of anecdotes, interesting references, and different shades of Spanish. It’s a window into a new cultural dimension that you’ve never experienced before.

If your mother tongue is not English, but you write in English, use some of your unique homeland vocabulary.
You come from a rich cultural heritage. You can share it with people who never heard about it, and are not even looking for it, but it is of immense value to them when they discover it.
Never forget about your identity. It is precious. It is a part of who you are. Even if you migrate, try to preserve it. Use it to your best advantage and become the voice of other people in the same situation.
Tell them what’s really on your mind: “So if you want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity – I am my language”.

19. Kurt Vonnegut – Dispatch From A Man Without a Country

In terms of style, this essay is flawless. It’s simple, conversational, humorous, and yet, full of wisdom. And when Vonnegut becomes a teacher and draws an axis of “beginning – end”, and, “good fortune – bad fortune” to explain literature, it becomes outright hilarious. It’s hard to find an author with such a down-to-earth approach. He doesn’t need to get intellectual to prove a point. And the point could be summed up by the quote from Great Expectations – “On the Rampage, Pip, and off the Rampage, Pip – such is Life!”

Start with a curious question: “Do you know what a twerp is?”
Surprise your readers with uncanny analogies: “I am from a family of artists. Here I am, making a living in the arts. It has not been a rebellion. It’s as though I had taken over the family Esso station.”
Use your natural language without too many special effects. In time, the style will crystalize.
An amusing lesson in writing from Mr. Vonnegut: “Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college”.
You can put actual images or vignettes between the paragraphs to illustrate something.

20. Mary Ruefle – On Fear

Most psychologists and gurus agree that fear is the greatest enemy of success or any creative activity. It’s programmed into our minds to keep us away from imaginary harm. Mary Ruefle takes on this basic human emotion with flair. She explores fear from so many angles (especially in the world of poetry-writing) that at the end of this personal essay, you will look at it, dissect it, untangle it, and hopefully be able to say “f**k you” the next time your brain is trying to stop you.

Research your subject thoroughly. Ask people, have interviews, get expert opinions, and gather as much information as possible. Then scavenge through the fields of data, and pull out the golden bits that will let your prose shine.
Use powerful quotes to add color to your story: “The poet who embarks on the creation of the poem (as I know by experience), begins with the aimless sensation of a hunter about to embark on a night hunt through the remotest of forests. Unaccountable dread stirs in his heart”. – Lorca.
Writing advice from the essay: “One of the fears a young writer has is not being able to write as well as he or she wants to, the fear of not being able to sound like X or Y, a favorite author. But out of fear, hopefully, is born a young writer’s voice”.

21. Susan Sontag – Against Interpretation

In this highly intellectual essay, Sontag fights for art and its interpretation. It’s a great lesson, especially for critics and interpreters who endlessly chew on works that simply defy interpretation. Why don’t we just leave the art alone? I always hated it when at school they asked me: “What did the author have in mind when he did X or Y?” Iēsous Pantocrator! Hell if I know! I will judge it through my subjective experience!

Leave the art alone: “Today is such a time, when the project of interpretation is reactionary, stifling. Like the fumes of the automobile and heavy industry which befoul the urban atmosphere, the effusion of interpretations of art today poisons our sensibilities”.
When you have something really important to say, style matters less.
There’s no use in creating a second meaning or inviting interpretation of our art. Just leave it be and let it speak for itself.

22. Nora Ephron – A Few Words About Breasts

This is a heartwarming, coming-of-age story about a young girl who waits in vain for her breasts to grow. It’s simply a humorous and pleasurable read. The size of breasts is a big deal for women. If you’re a man, you may peek into the mind of a woman and learn many interesting things. If you’re a woman, maybe you’ll be able to relate and at last, be at peace with your bosom.

Touch an interesting subject and establish a strong connection with the readers (in that case, women with small breasts). Let your personality shine through the written piece. If you are lighthearted, show it.
Use hyphens to create an impression of real talk: “My house was full of apples and peaches and milk and homemade chocolate chip cookies – which were nice, and good for you, but-not-right-before-dinner-or-you’ll-spoil-your-appetite.”
Use present tense when you tell a story to add more life to it.
Share the pronounced, memorable traits of characters: “A previous girlfriend named Solange, who was famous throughout Beverly Hills High School for having no pigment in her right eyebrow, had knitted them for him (angora dice)”.

23. Carl Sagan – Does Truth Matter – Science, Pseudoscience, and Civilization

Carl Sagan was one of the greatest proponents of skepticism, and an author of numerous books, including one of my all-time favorites – The Demon-Haunted World . He was also a renowned physicist and the host of the fantastic Cosmos: A Personal Voyage series, which inspired a whole generation to uncover the mysteries of the cosmos. He was also a dedicated weed smoker – clearly ahead of his time. The essay that you’re about to read is a crystallization of his views about true science, and why you should check the evidence before believing in UFOs or similar sorts of crap.

Tell people the brutal truth they need to hear. Be the one who spells it out for them.
Give a multitude of examples to prove your point. Giving hard facts helps to establish trust with the readers and show the veracity of your arguments.
Recommend a good book that will change your reader’s minds – How We Know What Isn’t So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life

24. Paul Graham – How To Do What You Love

How To Do What You Love should be read by every college student and young adult. The Internet is flooded with a large number of articles and videos that are supposed to tell you what to do with your life. Most of them are worthless, but this one is different. It’s sincere, and there’s no hidden agenda behind it. There’s so much we take for granted – what we study, where we work, what we do in our free time… Surely we have another two hundred years to figure it out, right? Life’s too short to be so naïve. Please, read the essay and let it help you gain fulfillment from your work.

Ask simple, yet thought-provoking questions (especially at the beginning of the paragraph) to engage the reader: “How much are you supposed to like what you do?”
Let the readers question their basic assumptions: “Prestige is like a powerful magnet that warps even your beliefs about what you enjoy. It causes you to work not on what you like, but what you’d like to like”.
If you’re writing for a younger audience, you can act as a mentor. It’s beneficial for younger people to read a few words of advice from a person with experience.

25. John Jeremiah Sullivan – Mister Lytle

A young, aspiring writer is about to become a nurse of a fading writer – Mister Lytle (Andrew Nelson Lytle), and there will be trouble. This essay by Sullivan is probably my favorite one from the whole list. The amount of beautiful sentences it contains is just overwhelming. But that’s just a part of its charm. It also takes you to the Old South which has an incredible atmosphere. It’s grim and tawny but you want to stay there for a while.

Short, distinct sentences are often the most powerful ones: “He had a deathbed, in other words. He didn’t go suddenly”.
Stay consistent with the mood of the story. When reading Mister Lytle you are immersed in that southern, forsaken, gloomy world, and it’s a pleasure.
The spectacular language that captures it all: “His French was superb, but his accent in English was best—that extinct mid-Southern, land-grant pioneer speech, with its tinges of the abandoned Celtic urban Northeast (“boned” for burned) and its raw gentility”.
This essay is just too good. You have to read it.

26. Joan Didion – On Self Respect

Normally, with that title, you would expect some straightforward advice about how to improve your character and get on with your goddamn life – but not from Joan Didion. From the very beginning, you can feel the depth of her thinking, and the unmistakable style of a true woman who’s been hurt. You can learn more from this essay than from whole books about self-improvement . It reminds me of the scene from True Detective, where Frank Semyon tells Ray Velcoro to “own it” after he realizes he killed the wrong man all these years ago. I guess we all have to “own it”, recognize our mistakes, and move forward sometimes.

Share your moral advice: “Character — the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life — is the source from which self-respect springs”.
It’s worth exploring the subject further from a different angle. It doesn’t matter how many people have already written on self-respect or self-reliance – you can still write passionately about it.
Whatever happens, you must take responsibility for it. Brave the storms of discontent.

27. Susan Sontag – Notes on Camp

Susan Sontag - Essays of the 1960 and 1970

I’ve never read anything so thorough and lucid about an artistic current. After reading this essay, you will know what camp is. But not only that – you will learn about so many artists you’ve never heard of. You will follow their traces and go to places where you’ve never been before. You will vastly increase your appreciation of art. It’s interesting how something written as a list could be so amazing. All the listicles we usually see on the web simply cannot compare with it.

Talking about artistic sensibilities is a tough job. When you read the essay, you will see how much research, thought and raw intellect came into it. But that’s one of the reasons why people still read it today, even though it was written in 1964.
You can choose an unorthodox way of expression in the medium for which you produce. For example, Notes on Camp is a listicle – one of the most popular content formats on the web. But in the olden days, it was uncommon to see it in print form.
Just think about what is camp: “And third among the great creative sensibilities is Camp: the sensibility of failed seriousness, of the theatricalization of experience. Camp refuses both the harmonies of traditional seriousness and the risks of fully identifying with extreme states of feeling”.

28. Ralph Waldo Emerson – Self-Reliance

Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self Reliance and other essays

That’s the oldest one from the lot. Written in 1841, it still inspires generations of people. It will let you understand what it means to be self-made. It contains some of the most memorable quotes of all time. I don’t know why, but this one especially touched me: “Every true man is a cause, a country, and an age; requires infinite spaces and numbers and time fully to accomplish his design, and posterity seems to follow his steps as a train of clients”. Now isn’t it purely individualistic, American thought? Emerson told me (and he will tell you) to do something amazing with my life. The language it contains is a bit archaic, but that just adds to the weight of the argument. You can consider it to be a meeting with a great philosopher who shaped the ethos of the modern United States.

You can start with a powerful poem that will set the stage for your work.
Be free in your creative flow. Do not wait for the approval of others: “What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness”.
Use rhetorical questions to strengthen your argument: “I hear a preacher announce for his text and topic the expediency of one of the institutions of his church. Do I not know beforehand that not possibly say a new and spontaneous word?”

29. David Foster Wallace – Consider The Lobster

David Foster Wallece - Consider the lobster and other essays

When you want simple field notes about a food festival, you needn’t send there the formidable David Foster Wallace. He sees right through the hypocrisy and cruelty behind killing hundreds of thousands of innocent lobsters – by boiling them alive. This essay uncovers some of the worst traits of modern American people. There are no apologies or hedging one’s bets. There’s just plain truth that stabs you in the eye like a lobster claw. After reading this essay, you may reconsider the whole animal-eating business.

When it’s important, say it plainly and stagger the reader: “[Lobsters] survive right up until they’re boiled. Most of us have been in supermarkets or restaurants that feature tanks of live lobster, from which you can pick out your supper while it watches you point”.
In your writing, put exact quotes of the people you’ve been interviewing (including slang and grammatical errors). It makes it more vivid, and interesting.
You can use humor in serious situations to make your story grotesque.
Use captions to expound on interesting points of your essay.

30. David Foster Wallace – The Nature of the Fun

David Foster Wallece - a supposedly fun thing I'll never do again

The famous novelist and author of the most powerful commencement speech ever done is going to tell you about the joys and sorrows of writing a work of fiction. It’s like taking care of a mutant child that constantly oozes smelly liquids. But you love that child and you want others to love it too. It’s a very humorous account of what it means to be an author. If you ever plan to write a novel, you should read that one. And the story about the Chinese farmer is just priceless.

Base your point on a chimerical analogy. Here, the writer’s unfinished work is a “hideously damaged infant”.
Even in expository writing, you may share an interesting story to keep things lively.
Share your true emotions (even when you think they won’t interest anyone). Often, that’s exactly what will interest the reader.
Read the whole essay for marvelous advice on writing fiction.

31. Margaret Atwood – Attitude

Margaret Atwood - Writing with Intent - Essays, Reviews, Personal Prose 1983-2005

This is not an essay per se, but I included it on the list for the sake of variety. It was delivered as a commencement speech at The University of Toronto, and it’s about keeping the right attitude. Soon after leaving university, most graduates have to forget about safety, parties, and travel and start a new life – one filled with a painful routine that will last until they drop. Atwood says that you don’t have to accept that. You can choose how you react to everything that happens to you (and you don’t have to stay in that dead-end job for the rest of your days).

At times, we are all too eager to persuade, but the strongest persuasion is not forceful. It’s subtle. It speaks to the heart. It affects you gradually.
You may be tempted to talk about a subject by first stating what it is not, rather than what it is. Try to avoid that.
Simple advice for writers (and life in general): “When faced with the inevitable, you always have a choice. You may not be able to alter reality, but you can alter your attitude towards it”.

32. Jo Ann Beard – The Fourth State of Matter

Read that one as soon as possible. It’s one of the most masterful and impactful essays you’ll ever read. It’s like a good horror – a slow build-up, and then your jaw drops to the ground. To summarize the story would be to spoil it, so I recommend that you just dig in and devour this essay in one sitting. It’s a perfect example of “show, don’t tell” writing, where the actions of characters are enough to create the right effect. No need for flowery adjectives here.

The best story you will tell is going to come from your personal experience.
Use mysteries that will nag the reader. For example, at the beginning of the essay, we learn about the “vanished husband” but there’s no explanation. We have to keep reading to get the answer.
Explain it in simple terms: “You’ve got your solid, your liquid, your gas, and then your plasma”. Why complicate?

33. Terence McKenna – Tryptamine Hallucinogens and Consciousness

To me, Terence McKenna was one of the most interesting thinkers of the twentieth century. His many lectures (now available on YouTube) attracted millions of people who suspect that consciousness holds secrets yet to be unveiled. McKenna consumed psychedelic drugs for most of his life and it shows (in a positive way). Many people consider him a looney, and a hippie, but he was so much more than that. He dared to go into the abyss of his psyche and come back to tell the tale. He also wrote many books (the most famous being Food Of The Gods ), built a huge botanical garden in Hawaii , lived with shamans, and was a connoisseur of all things enigmatic and obscure. Take a look at this essay, and learn more about the explorations of the subconscious mind.

Become the original thinker, but remember that it may require extraordinary measures: “I call myself an explorer rather than a scientist because the area that I’m looking at contains insufficient data to support even the dream of being a science”.
Learn new words every day to make your thoughts lucid.
Come up with the most outlandish ideas to push the envelope of what’s possible. Don’t take things for granted or become intellectually lazy. Question everything.

34. Eudora Welty – The Little Store

By reading this little-known essay, you will be transported into the world of the old American South. It’s a remembrance of trips to the little store in a little town. It’s warm and straightforward, and when you read it, you feel like a child once more. All these beautiful memories live inside of us. They lay somewhere deep in our minds, hidden from sight. The work by Eudora Welty is an attempt to uncover some of them and let you get reacquainted with some smells and tastes of the past.

When you’re from the South, flaunt it. It’s still good old English but sometimes it sounds so foreign. I can hear the Southern accent too: “There were almost tangible smells – licorice recently sucked in a child’s cheek, dill-pickle brine that had leaked through a paper sack in a fresh trail across the wooden floor, ammonia-loaded ice that had been hoisted from wet Croker sacks and slammed into the icebox with its sweet butter at the door, and perhaps the smell of still-untrapped mice”.
Yet again, never forget your roots.
Childhood stories can be the most powerful ones. You can write about how they shaped you.

35. John McPhee – The Search for Marvin Gardens

The Search for Marvin Gardens contains many layers of meaning. It’s a story about a Monopoly championship, but also, it’s the author’s search for the lost streets visible on the board of the famous board game. It also presents a historical perspective on the rise and fall of civilizations, and on Atlantic City, which once was a lively place, and then, slowly declined, the streets filled with dirt and broken windows.

There’s nothing like irony: “A sign- ‘Slow, Children at Play’- has been bent backward by an automobile”.
Telling the story in apparently unrelated fragments is sometimes better than telling the whole thing in a logical order.
Creativity is everything. The best writing may come just from connecting two ideas and mixing them to achieve a great effect. Shush! The muse is whispering.

36. Maxine Hong Kingston – No Name Woman

Maxine Hong Kingston - Conversations with Maxine Hong Kingston

A dead body at the bottom of the well makes for a beautiful literary device. The first line of Orhan Pamuk’s novel My Name Is Red delivers it perfectly: “I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well”. There’s something creepy about the idea of the well. Just think about the “It puts the lotion in the basket” scene from The Silence of the Lambs. In the first paragraph of Kingston’s essay, we learn about a suicide committed by uncommon means of jumping into the well. But this time it’s a real story. Who was this woman? Why did she do it? Read the essay.

Mysterious death always gets attention. The macabre details are like daiquiris on a hot day – you savor them – you don’t let them spill.
One sentence can speak volumes: “But the rare urge west had fixed upon our family, and so my aunt crossed boundaries not delineated in space”.
It’s interesting to write about cultural differences – especially if you have the relevant experience. Something normal for us is unthinkable for others. Show this different world.
The subject of sex is never boring.

37. Joan Didion – On Keeping A Notebook

Joan Didion - We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live

Slouching Towards Bethlehem is one of the most famous collections of essays of all time. In it, you will find a curious piece called On Keeping A Notebook. It’s not only a meditation about keeping a journal. It’s also Didion’s reconciliation with her past self. After reading it, you will seriously reconsider your life’s choices and look at your life from a wider perspective.

When you write things down in your journal, be more specific – unless you want to write a deep essay about it years later.
Use the beauty of the language to relate to the past: “I have already lost touch with a couple of people I used to be; one of them, a seventeen-year-old, presents little threat, although it would be of some interest to me to know again what it feels like to sit on a river levee drinking vodka-and-orange-juice and listening to Les Paul and Mary Ford and their echoes sing ‘How High the Moon’ on the car radio”.
Drop some brand names if you want to feel posh.

38. Joan Didion – Goodbye To All That

Joan Didion - Slouching Towards Bethlehem

This one touched me because I also lived in New York City for a while. I don’t know why, but stories about life in NYC are so often full of charm and this eerie-melancholy-jazz feeling. They are powerful. They go like this: “There was a hard blizzard in NYC. As the sound of sirens faded, Tony descended into the dark world of hustlers and pimps.” That’s pulp literature but in the context of NYC, it always sounds cool. Anyway, this essay is amazing in too many ways. You just have to read it.

Talk about New York City. They will read it.
Talk about the human experience: “It did occur to me to call the desk and ask that the air conditioner be turned off, I never called, because I did not know how much to tip whoever might come—was anyone ever so young?”
Look back at your life and reexamine it. Draw lessons from it.

39. George Orwell – Reflections on Gandhi

George Orwell could see things as they were. No exaggeration, no romanticism – just facts. He recognized totalitarianism and communism for what they were and shared his worries through books like 1984 and Animal Farm . He took the same sober approach when dealing with saints and sages. Today, we regard Gandhi as one of the greatest political leaders of the twentieth century – and rightfully so. But did you know that when asked about the Jews during World War II, Gandhi said that they should commit collective suicide and that it: “would have aroused the world and the people of Germany to Hitler’s violence.” He also recommended utter pacifism in 1942, during the Japanese invasion, even though he knew it would cost millions of lives. But overall he was a good guy. Read the essay and broaden your perspective on the Bapu of the Indian Nation.

Share a philosophical thought that stops the reader for a moment: “No doubt alcohol, tobacco, and so forth are things that a saint must avoid, but sainthood is also a thing that human beings must avoid”.
Be straightforward in your writing – no mannerisms, no attempts to create ‘style’, and no invocations of the numinous – unless you feel the mystical vibe.

40. George Orwell – Politics and the English Language

Let Mr. Orwell give you some writing tips. Written in 1946, this essay is still one of the most helpful documents on writing in English. Orwell was probably the first person who exposed the deliberate vagueness of political language. He was very serious about it and I admire his efforts to slay all unclear sentences (including ones written by distinguished professors). But it’s good to make it humorous too from time to time. My favorite examples of that would be the immortal Soft Language sketch by George Carlin or the “Romans Go Home” scene from Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Overall, it’s a great essay filled with examples from many written materials. It’s a must-read for any writer.

Listen to the master: “This mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose.” Do something about it.
This essay is all about writing better, so go to the source if you want the goodies.

Other Essays You May Find Interesting

The list that I’ve prepared is by no means complete. The literary world is full of exciting essays and you’ll never know which one is going to change your life. I’ve found reading essays very rewarding because sometimes, a single one means more than reading a whole book. It’s almost like wandering around and peeking into the minds of the greatest writers and thinkers that ever lived. To make this list more comprehensive, below I included more essays you may find interesting.

Oliver Sacks – On Libraries

One of the greatest contributors to the knowledge about the human mind, Oliver Sacks meditates on the value of libraries and his love of books.

Noam Chomsky – The Responsibility of Intellectuals

Chomsky did probably more than anyone else to define the role of the intelligentsia in the modern world . There is a war of ideas over there – good and bad – intellectuals are going to be those who ought to be fighting for the former.

Sam Harris – The Riddle of The Gun

Sam Harris, now a famous philosopher and neuroscientist, takes on the problem of gun control in the United States. His thoughts are clear of prejudice. After reading this, you’ll appreciate the value of logical discourse overheated, irrational debate that more often than not has real implications on policy.

Tim Ferriss – Some Practical Thoughts on Suicide

This piece was written as a blog post , but it’s worth your time. The author of the NYT bestseller The 4-Hour Workweek shares an emotional story about how he almost killed himself, and what can you do to save yourself or your friends from suicide.

Edward Said – Reflections on Exile

The life of Edward Said was a truly fascinating one. Born in Jerusalem, he lived between Palestine and Egypt and finally settled down in the United States, where he completed his most famous work – Orientalism. In this essay, he shares his thoughts about what it means to be in exile.

Richard Feynman – It’s as Simple as One, Two, Three…

Richard Feynman is one of the most interesting minds of the twentieth century. He was a brilliant physicist, but also an undeniably great communicator of science, an artist, and a traveler. By reading this essay, you can observe his thought process when he tries to figure out what affects our perception of time. It’s a truly fascinating read.

Rabindranath Tagore – The Religion of The Forest

I like to think about Tagore as my spiritual Friend. His poems are just marvelous. They are like some of the Persian verses that praise love, nature, and the unity of all things. By reading this short essay, you will learn a lot about Indian philosophy and its relation to its Western counterpart.

Richard Dawkins – Letter To His 10-Year-Old Daughter

Every father should be able to articulate his philosophy of life to his children. With this letter that’s similar to what you find in the Paris Review essays , the famed atheist and defender of reason, Richard Dawkins, does exactly that. It’s beautifully written and stresses the importance of looking at evidence when we’re trying to make sense of the world.

Albert Camus – The Minotaur (or, The Stop In Oran)

Each person requires a period of solitude – a period when one’s able to gather thoughts and make sense of life. There are many places where you may attempt to find quietude. Albert Camus tells about his favorite one.

Koty Neelis – 21 Incredible Life Lessons From Anthony Bourdain

I included it as the last one because it’s not really an essay, but I just had to put it somewhere. In this listicle, you’ll find the 21 most original thoughts of the high-profile cook, writer, and TV host, Anthony Bourdain. Some of them are shocking, others are funny, but they’re all worth checking out.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca – On the Shortness of Life

It’s similar to the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam because it praises life. Seneca shares some of his stoic philosophy and tells you not to waste your time on stupidities. Drink! – for once dead you shall never return.

Bertrand Russell – In Praise of Idleness

This old essay is a must-read for modern humans. We are so preoccupied with our work, our phones, and all the media input we drown in our business. Bertrand Russell tells you to chill out a bit – maybe it will do you some good.

James Baldwin – Stranger in the Village

It’s an essay on the author’s experiences as an African-American in a Swiss village, exploring race, identity, and alienation while highlighting the complexities of racial dynamics and the quest for belonging.

Bonus – More writing tips from two great books

The mission to improve my writing skills took me further than just going through the essays. I’ve come across some great books on writing too. I highly recommend you read them in their entirety. They’re written beautifully and contain lots of useful knowledge. Below you’ll find random (but useful) notes that I took from The Sense of Style and On Writing.

The Sense of Style – By Steven Pinker

Style manuals are full of inconsistencies. Following their advice might not be the best idea. They might make your prose boring.
Grammarians from all eras condemn students for not knowing grammar. But it just evolves. It cannot be rigid.
“Nothing worth learning can be taught” – Oscar Wilde. It’s hard to learn to write from a manual – you have to read, write, and analyze.
Good writing makes you imagine things and feel them for yourself – use word pictures.
Don’t fear using voluptuous words.
Phonesthetics – or how the words sound.
Use parallel language (consistency of tense).
Good writing finishes strong.
Write to someone. Never write for no one in mind. Try to show people your view of the world.
Don’t tell everything you are going to say in summary (signposting) – be logical, but be conversational.
Don’t be pompous.
Don’t use quotation marks where they don’t “belong”. Be confident about your style.
Don’t hedge your claims (research first, and then tell it like it is).
Avoid clichés and meta-concepts (concepts about concepts). Be more straightforward!
Not prevention – but prevents or prevented – don’t use dead nouns.
Be more vivid while using your mother tongue – don’t use passive where it’s not needed. Direct the reader’s gaze to something in the world.
The curse of knowledge – the reader doesn’t know what you know – beware of that.
Explain technical terms.
Use examples when you explain a difficult term.
If you ever say “I think I understand this” it probably means you don’t.
It’s better to underestimate the lingo of your readers than to overestimate it.
Functional fixedness – if we know some object (or idea) well, we tend to see it in terms of usage, not just as an object.
Use concrete language instead of an abstraction.
Show your work to people before you publish (get feedback!).
Wait for a few days and then revise, revise, revise. Think about clarity and the sound of sentences. Then show it to someone. Then revise one more time. Then publish (if it’s to be serious work).
Look at it from the perspective of other people.
Omit needless words.
Put the heaviest words at the end of the sentence.
It’s good to use the passive, but only when appropriate.
Check all text for cohesion. Make sure that the sentences flow gently.
In expository work, go from general to more specific. But in journalism start from the big news and then give more details.
Use the paragraph break to give the reader a moment to take a breath.
Use the verb instead of a noun (make it more active) – not “cancellation”, but “canceled”. But after you introduce the action, you can refer to it with a noun.
Avoid too many negations.
If you write about why something is so, don’t spend too much time writing about why it is not.

On Writing Well – By William Zinsser

Writing is a craft. You need to sit down every day and practice your craft.
You should re-write and polish your prose a lot.
Throw out all the clutter. Don’t keep it because you like it. Aim for readability.
Look at the best examples of English literature . There’s hardly any needless garbage there.
Use shorter expressions. Don’t add extra words that don’t bring any value to your work.
Don’t use pompous language. Use simple language and say plainly what’s going on (“because” equals “because”).
The media and politics are full of cluttered prose (because it helps them to cover up for their mistakes).
You can’t add style to your work (and especially, don’t add fancy words to create an illusion of style). That will look fake. You need to develop a style.
Write in the “I” mode. Write to a friend or just for yourself. Show your personality. There is a person behind the writing.
Choose your words carefully. Use the dictionary to learn different shades of meaning.
Remember about phonology. Make music with words .
The lead is essential. Pull the reader in. Otherwise, your article is dead.
You don’t have to make the final judgment on any topic. Just pick the right angle.
Do your research. Not just obvious research, but a deep one.
When it’s time to stop, stop. And finish strong. Think about the last sentence. Surprise them.
Use quotations. Ask people. Get them talking.
If you write about travel, it must be significant to the reader. Don’t bother with the obvious. Choose your words with special care. Avoid travel clichés at all costs. Don’t tell that the sand was white and there were rocks on the beach. Look for the right detail.
If you want to learn how to write about art, travel, science, etc. – read the best examples available. Learn from the masters.
Concentrate on one big idea (“Let’s not go peeing down both legs”).
“The reader has to feel that the writer is feeling good.”
One very helpful question: “What is the piece really about?” (Not just “What the piece is about?”)

Now immerse yourself in the world of essays

By reading the essays from the list above, you’ll become a better writer , a better reader, but also a better person. An essay is a special form of writing. It is the only literary form that I know of that is an absolute requirement for career or educational advancement. Nowadays, you can use an AI essay writer or an AI essay generator that will get the writing done for you, but if you have personal integrity and strong moral principles, avoid doing this at all costs. For me as a writer, the effect of these authors’ masterpieces is often deeply personal. You won’t be able to find the beautiful thoughts they contain in any other literary form. I hope you enjoy the read and that it will inspire you to do your writing. This list is only an attempt to share some of the best essays available online. Next up, you may want to check the list of magazines and websites that accept personal essays .

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A Memorable Trip Essay In English
An Unforgettable Travel Essay
My trip experience essay in 2021
My travel essay for creative writing subject.
Essay On Vacation
How I Spent My Summer Vacation Essay (2024)

COMMENTS

Essay on My Best Trip
1. This essay sample was donated by a student to help the academic community. Papers provided by EduBirdie writers usually outdo students' samples. Cite this essay. Download. In 2015, I had the best trip of my life. It was a trip, I can never forget. It was in the summer. This trip made me so happy because I went to states I have not been in ...
Travel Writing: How To Write a Powerful (not Boring) Travel Essay
To inspire you and help you write your next trip essay—whether it's an essay about a trip with family or simply a way to remember your best trip ever (so far)—we enlisted the help of ...
Short Essay: My Adventurous Trip
My Adventurous Trip Essay Example 2. My adventurous trip was an experience of a lifetime. It was a chance for me to step out of my comfort zone and explore the great outdoors. The trip was filled with activities such as hiking, camping, and kayaking. The beautiful scenery and wildlife sightings made the trip memorable.
Essay on My Most Memorable Trip
Students are often asked to write an essay on My Most Memorable Trip in their schools and colleges. And if you're also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic. Let's take a look… 100 Words Essay on My Most Memorable Trip Exciting Departure. My most memorable trip was to a wildlife sanctuary.
My Best Vacation: a Memorable Experience That I Won't Forget
One day we had a trip to the capital (Palma de Mallorca) and the aquarium. I liked the aquarium very much. I've seen many interesting aquatic animals there. ... It was the best vacation I have ever had. To end up this short essay, of course I cannot say that is was a perfect holiday, however it was full of new experience and memorable emotions ...
My First International Trip: [Essay Example], 675 words
My first international trip marked the culmination of months of planning and anticipation. From the moment I set foot in the unfamiliar airport, I was struck by a blend of emotions—anxiety, excitement, and wonder. The foreign languages echoing around me and the diversity of faces served as a vivid reminder that I was entering a realm entirely ...
Short Essay on My Adventurous Trip [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF
Short Essay on My Adventurous Trip in 100 Words. Every trip is an adventure and gives us joy. Going out on vacation may not mean a trip. A trip with adventures is completely different. Sometimes the vacation trip also becomes adventurous. Lots of things happen that amaze us. Also in adventures, many dangers take place. I remember such an ...
How To Write a Good Travel Essay
The primary purpose of writing a traveling essay is to entertain your readers. So, there's no need to show off by using literary words or highly academic structure. Instead, use an active voice, try to be friendly, and bring readers closer to your story. In this kind of essay, your writing intelligence depends on your ability to amuse people ...
Best Trip Ever: Introduction
A Few More Months Till My Dad's Big Trip. In the end our itinerary looked as follows: 11/13 AA1209 Tampa to Los Angeles departing 7:40AM arriving 10:10AM. 11/13 EK216 Los Angeles to Dubai departing 3:35PM arriving 7:35PM (+1 day) 11/18 EK354 Dubai to Singapore departing 3:15AM arriving 2:40PM.
The Best Travel Experience Essay Ever
When I think about my best travel experience ever, so many things jump out at me. Learning to Scuba in the Great Barrier Reef. Bungy Jumping in New Zealand. Feeding elephants in Thailand. Teaching kids in Cambodia. Seeing the Christmas markets in Prague. And even cocktails on the beach in Mexico. I've been lucky enough to have so many great ...
Essay on Best Vacation I Ever Had
This trip to the Grand Canyon was the best vacation I ever had. It was a perfect mix of fun, adventure, and learning. I will always cherish the memories of this wonderful vacation. 500 Words Essay on Best Vacation I Ever Had Introduction. The best vacation I ever had was a trip to the beautiful city of Paris in France.
My best trip ever
My best trip ever - SJ 2014/15. Sami, 3a: On July 21st we flew from Vienna to Munich, before that we drove to Vienna and it took us 2 hours. It was a very hot day. At the airport we had to wait to board. We had something to eat and drink. At 2 pm our gate was ready for boarding.
My Best Holiday Essay 200 Words
My Best Holiday Essay 200 Words. I want to take you on a fantastic journey through my best holiday ever. It was like a dream come true, filled with exciting adventures and unforgettable moments. So, fasten your seatbelts, and let's dive into the story of my best holiday!
19 Inspiring Travel Experience Stories About Life-Changing Trips
8. How Cuba Changed My Life. One of my favorite inspiring stories about travel takes place in Cuba. I visited Cuba in February 2013 and it changed my life — and I like to think it did so for the better. Interestingly, I expected a completely different country and was compelled to write about it when I got back home.
21 Life-changing Bucket List Trips Everyone Should Experience
25 Best Summer Vacations Everyone Should Consider in 2024. 20 Romantic Anniversary Trip Ideas. 25 Best Mother-daughter Trips Around the World.
The Best Travel Literature of All Time
The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd (Photo: Paul Stafford for TravelMag.com) The Motorcycle Diaries (1992) - Che Guevara. Even if Che Guevara never became the revolutionary and icon of a generation that he did, The Motorcycle Diaries is a fascinating first-person account of travel's capacity to broaden the mind.
Best Trip Ever
Best Trip Ever. 850 Words4 Pages. The Best Trip Ever. In 2015 my mom wanted to go to arizona to see her family. So we made a plan that we would fly to Phoenix. Three weeks later, spring break my Mom, Dad, and my mom's mom all fly to out to Arizona. It was three o'clock when we landed at Phoenix sky harbor international airport.
The Ten Best Books About Travel of 2023
Laura Kiniry. Travel Correspondent. December 5, 2023. This year's top titles include The Last Ride of the Pony Express, Elixir, Airplane Mode, and more. Illustration by Emily Lankiewicz. It's ...
My Best Trip Essay for Children (900 Words)
My Best Trip Essay for Children (900 Words) December 24, 2017 by Study Mentor Leave a Comment. This is a write up on my dream international trip which I had been yearning to take for my complete life. I have visited many exotic locations across India but my dream came true when my dad announced of the trip to Bangkok and Pattaya.
The Best Vacations I Have Ever Had Essay
The Best Vacations I Have Ever Had Essay. 885 Words4 Pages. The best vacations I have ever had My trip to Canada was the best experience that I've ever had. Since I was a child, I had the dream of visiting a magical and beautiful place like Niagara Falls and meet my favorite animal, panda bears. To start my vacation, I went online, and I took ...
40 Best Essays of All Time (Including Links & Writing Tips)
1. David Sedaris - Laugh, Kookaburra. A great family drama takes place against the backdrop of the Australian wilderness. And the Kookaburra laughs…. This is one of the top essays of the lot. It's a great mixture of family reminiscences, travel writing, and advice on what's most important in life.
A Magical Surprise: The Unforgettable Childhood Road Trip Free Essay
14994. When I was a child, every summer my parents would take us on a short vacation to visit our grandma, but this time it was something different. It was nine summers ago when I was about 9 or 10, my parents told me some exciting news about going on a special fun road trip the following Friday. Surely, my two little sisters and I were very ...

Write a Good Travel Essay. Please.

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Short Essay: My Adventurous Trip

My Adventurous Trip Essay Example 1

My Adventurous Trip Essay Example 2

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About Mr. Greg

My Best Vacation: a Memorable Experience That I Won't Forget

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How To Write a Good Travel Essay

Select Your Favorite City

Choose a Few Attractions

Write a Compelling First Paragraph

Show Rather Than Tell

Keep It Simple

Describe What You Achieved

Give Readers a Good Ending

Bottom Line

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